U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis has a substantial fundraising advantage as he begins his general election fight against Democratic challenger Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.
Davis had $1.3 million in his campaign war chest as of March 31, according to new campaign disclosures. The Taylorville Republican raised $345,879 in March alone.
Londrigan, a professional fundraiser from Springfield, spent a bunch of money to win her five-way Democratic primary on March 20. (Davis didn’t have a primary opponent.) Londrigan has $221,207 in her campaign fund, after raising $224,993 in March.
Incumbents tend to have a fundraising advantage, and that’s the case with Davis. Around 72 percent of the contributions to Davis’ campaign since January 2017 have come from other campaign committees, including PACs for companies such as State Farm, Anheuser-Busch, ADM, Deere & Co., Exelon, AT&T, and Comcast, among others.
For Londrigan, only around 7 percent of the contributions to her campaign have come from PACs and other committees, Federal Election Commission records show. The bulk of the $785,889 she’s raised for her congressional run has come from individual donors.
But there are signs Londrigan is trying to attract money from national Democratic donors. Right after her primary win, Londrigan was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program, which sends additional resources to around 33 of the 101 districts that the DCCC is targeting in November. They need to flip 24 GOP seats to win the House.
The DCCC funneled $8,000 to Londrigan’s campaign in March, records show. She picked up another $4,117 through Emily’s List, which has endorsed her campaign.
Davis has held the seat since 2013. He’s seen as potentially vulnerable in a 13th Congressional District drawn by Democrats specifically to give Democrats a shot. The gerrymandered 13th District includes parts or all of 14 counties, stretching from the western half of Bloomington-Normal all the way south to Edwardsville.
The Cook Political Report rates the district as “likely” to stay Republican in November.
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