U.S. Senate candidate Al Gross outpaced U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in the latest fundraising period, but there’s plenty of ground between the Democratic Party-endorsed independent and the incumbent Republican.
According to the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Gross collected $790,017.37 from individual contributions between July 1 and the end of September. Sullivan raised $486,881.75 from individual contributions during that same time period.
Sullivan took in an additional $167,300 from political action committees, putting Sullivan’s total fundraising for the period at $654,181.75. Gross contributed $200,000 of his own money and took $10,000 from political action committees, putting his total at $1.01 million.
All that aside, Sullivan holds a significant cash advantage over Gross.
According to the reports, Sullivan has $3.3 million on hand and, to date, has already spent $1.2 million.
Gross has spent $328,241.57 on the race to date and has about $681,000 in cash on hand.
Still, a fundraising win in one quarter is still a win and the Gross campaign took a victory lap with the news in an email to supporters.
“Because of you we outraised Dan Sullivan in the first three months of our campaign,” explains the email. “That’s incredible and a testament to how Alaskans and working people from all over are fed up with politicians in Washington who work for special interests instead of us.”
Why it matters
The 2020 races are just starting to take shape, but the latest fundraising quarter has to be good news to the Gross campaign. It’ll still be a significant uphill battle for any challenger to take on Sullivan and his significant cash advantage, especially in a year where resources will likely be focused on the presidential race and other U.S. Senate races such as Republicans in Maine, Colorado and Texas are considered to be more competitive.
Sullivan’s re-election campaign will soon be kicking into high gear with the addition of Matt Shuckerow as the campaign’s manager. Shuckerow recently left the job as spokesman for the Dunleavy administration and previously worked for both Sullivan and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Al is a refreshing and positive choice!