Democrat Harrison touts another fundraising record in bid to unseat Lindsey Graham
U.S. Senate hopeful Jaime Harrison’s campaign raised more than $3.5 million in the last quarter of 2019, another record haul for the Columbia Democrat who wants to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
In details shared first with The State, the Harrison campaign also reported it had more than $4.6 million on hand to spend entering 2020 in what is expected to be an expensive race that already has drawn national attention and donors. Graham has posted his own fundraising records in his reelection bid.
Harrison’s campaign, in the last three months of the year, also raised more than any other Democratic Senate challenger in the history of the state, including himself, his campaign said. His campaign said the average contribution during the quarter was $27 from 67,000 individual donors, and 112,000 different contributions, including contributions from every county in the state.
Harrison’s campaign did not immediately release a breakdown of where his donors were from.
This fourth quarter haul tops his contributions from earlier in 2019. The third quarter he brought in $2.2 million. The second quarter of the year he brought in $1.5 million.
“Sen. Graham thinks he will ease his way to reelection, but he’s about to face his greatest challenger and that is Jaime Harrison,” Guy King, Harrison campaign spokesman said. Harrison is not the only Democrat running for the Democratic nomination. Former Democratic congressional candidate, Gloria Bromell Tinubu of Georgetown, also has said she is seeking the seat.
Graham’s campaign, which declined to comment, has yet to finalize its fundraising total for the last three months of 2019.
However, Graham has had productive fundraising efforts during the election cycle. In the second quarter of 2019, he brought in $3 million. Graham then later topped that with $3.29 million in the third quarter, which outperformed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Graham had nearly $8.4 million in cash on hand at the end of September.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Democrat Harrison touts another fundraising record in bid to unseat Lindsey Graham."
