Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s fundraising has slowed as she weighs running for re-election in Arizona, according to a new campaign finance report filed late Tuesday night.
The first-term senator raised just $595,000 in the last three months of the year, a notable drop from the third fundraising quarter, when she pulled in $826,000.
Sinema’s campaign fundraising has dropped each quarter in 2023. But she still has millions to spend on a potential re-election bid, ending December with $10.6 million in her campaign account — a potential boon against competitors who raised significantly more money in the fourth quarter but did not start the campaign with the same cash reserves as Sinema.
Sinema does have time to make her 2024 decision — Arizona’s filing deadline is not until April. But her opponents are already filling up their campaign coffers.
Although they have yet to file their fundraising reports, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego’s campaign announced earlier this month that he raised $3.3 million in the most recent fundraising quarter, and Republican Kari Lake announced she raised $2.1 million, per Politico.
Just around half of Sinema’s fourth-quarter haul came from individual donors. The rest came from PACs and other fundraising committees.
Former Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman’s dormant Senate campaign committee and his affiliated PAC transferred a combined $9,000 to Sinema. And her filing did include at least one show of support from a current Senate colleague: New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s “A New Direction PAC” contributed $5,000.
The Arizona senator spent almost $800,000 in the final three months of 2023. Security expenses made up a significant chunk of her spending, including about $185,000 in security-related line items, plus an additional $77,000 for a security vehicle at a Scottsdale Chevrolet dealership
Sinema also spent another $140,000 on digital advertising and a retainer for a digital ad company, almost $36,000 on lodging and $19,000 on airfare.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
