Rosen raises $2.6 million in U.S. Senate bid, nearly doubles cash on hand
Congresswoman Jacky Rosen raised nearly $2.6 million in the first three months of 2018 and ended March with more than $3.5 million in the bank, according to early fundraising totals released by her campaign.
Rosen’s haul eclipses her fourth-quarter fundraising total for 2017 by about $1 million, and she has increased her cash on hand by $1.7 million since the end of December. Republican Sen. Dean Heller’s campaign has not yet released its fundraising totals for the first three months of the year, though he had more than $4.2 million on hand at the end of December after raising $820,000 in the last three months of the year.
Rosen’s campaign touted her first-quarter totals as “the most ever raised for the first quarter of an election year in a U.S. Senate race in Nevada.”
The $2.6 million raised by Rosen in the first quarter of 2018 is about $600,000 more than Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto raised over the same time period during her 2016 election. At the same time in 2016, Cortez Masto had $2.5 million in cash on hand. Cortez Masto’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Joe Heck, raised $1.6 million in the first quarter of 2016 and had $3.8 million in the bank.
Heller’s 2012 U.S. Senate campaign raised about $1.1 million in the first quarter of the year with about $4.3 million in the bank at the time. His Democratic opponent, Rep. Shelley Berkley, had raised $1.2 million, with about $4.4 million on hand.
Rosen’s campaign manager Danny Kazin said they are “overwhelmed” by what he described as “the growing grassroots support” for Rosen. Of the 77,000 donations Rosen’s campaign has received, more than 90 percent have been $100 or less, and the campaign’s overall average contribution is $69, according to her campaign.
“Our strong fundraising will help ensure we have the resources to share our message and win this race,” Kazin said.
Rosen raised $240,000 in the first quarter of 2017 and $310,000 in the second, which stretched through the end of June, before announcing her Senate campaign at the beginning of July. She raised $1.2 million in the third quarter of the year. By comparison, Heller raised $1.4 million in the first quarter, $1.4 million in the second quarter and $1.2 million in the third quarter.