The campaign of Democratic Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman raised a record-breaking amount in the second quarter of this year, according to newly available numbers. The total was $11 million, which the Fetterman campaign says is the most ever raised by a Pennsylvania Senate candidate in just three months.
Most of that total — $8.3 million — came in between Fetterman’s win in the mid-May Democratic primary and the end of June. “Since he won the nomination, more than 139,000 donors have given to Fetterman for the first time, his campaign said, accounting for about two-thirds of his donors in the last quarter,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The average donation amount across the second quarter was $31, showcasing — as the number of first-time donors indicates — that there’s a swell of grassroots support for Fetterman, who polling suggests is on his way to victory. A Suffolk University/ USA Today poll from June showed Fetterman nine percent ahead of GOP pick Mehmet Oz, aka Dr. Oz, who has Trump’s support.
Putting Fetterman’s fundraising in perspective, his second-quarter total is almost two-thirds of the total — $17.8 million — that was raised by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) across his most recent campaign for re-election. Oz funded “nearly all” of his primary campaign — which was barely successful, as he finished less than 1,000 votes ahead of runner-up Dave McCormick — with his own money, the Inquirer notes. Fetterman was the first between the two to reveal fundraising totals for the second quarter. The Pennsylvania Senate seat for which Fetterman and Oz are running, which is currently held by retiring GOP’er Pat Toomey, is considered among the most able to be flipped among the Senate seats on the ballot this year. FiveThirtyEight, a polling and analysis site, estimated as of this Tuesday based on available data that Republicans were ever-so-slightly favored to win the Senate, but their lead in the model was barely there: the site gave the GOP a 55 percent chance and the Democrats a 45 percent one.
There are other Senate seats up for grabs in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona, among other states. In each of these states, Democrats appear to have good, even if not unbeatable, chances of victory. Polling has seemed to suggest a closer race in Georgia than in Pennsylvania: a Data for Progress survey conducted this month found Republican contender Herschel Walker in the lead, but a Quinnipiac University poll conducted last month showed Democratic candidate and incumbent Raphael Warnock leading. There’s set to be an only increasing influx of national attention on key Senate races including those in Pennsylvania and Georgia. “Both parties’ national arms and an array of interest groups are also lining up television time to add to what is likely to be a spending deluge on Pennsylvania’s airwaves,” as the Inquirer notes.
Fetterman is metaphorically hitting Oz on an array of fronts, including his New Jersey ties. Oz has a large residence in New Jersey — which isn’t Pennsylvania! — and voted there in 2020. Fetterman, of course, has an impressive array of his own pushes as well. He backs a $15-an-hour living wage, treating healthcare as a right, focusing on the transition to clean energy, and more. “John refuses contributions from corporate PACs, and he signed the “No Fossil Fuel Money” Pledge,” his campaign website adds.
