Amid his current run for Senate in his home state of California, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has reported what is apparently the highest fundraising total in the second quarter for a Democratic Senate candidate in an off-year, meaning a year without nationwide elections.
Schiff is running in the primary to succeed Dianne Feinstein, an incumbent Dem who is retiring. Other Democrats to have already announced their campaigns for the same seat include Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, both of whom also currently serve in Congress. Per early numbers that began to circulate very soon after the second quarter ended at the close of June, Schiff’s campaign brought in $8.1 million throughout the period, surpassing a past fundraising record for a similar point in the electoral cycle that was set when Raphael Warnock raised $7.2 million in early 2021. Warnock has since won a full term of six years after first nabbing the necessary support to finish out the remainder of the terms of the retired Senator before him.
In the middle of the second quarter, House Republicans led a censure of Schiff, which essentially amounts to just a formal rebuke that for some reason became a top priority for party members. First-term Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) introduced at least five different resolutions relating to Schiff, though her constituents presumably have real-world needs that aren’t scoring political points against a member of the House whose district is basically all the way across the country!
An earlier version of the censure initiative that included a large fine for the Congressman was rejected by the House, but removing those provisions pushed it forward. Predictably, Schiff has used the censure effort against him in fundraising pitches to prospective supporters, and it’s honestly unclear that the whole thing produced anything substantive beyond giving his Senate campaign material!
Elsewhere in the country, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) also had a great fundraising quarter as he seeks to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), though Allred would first need to win the Democratic primary. Despite only kickstarting his campaign a month into the quarter, Allred nonetheless reached $6.2 million, which last time around it took Beto O’Rourke three fundraising quarters to hit!
