2Q donations to Cotton top $1M, aide says

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., raised more than $1 million in campaign contributions during the second quarter of the year and has more than $3.5 million in his re-election war chest as he prepares for 2020, campaign manager Brian Colas said Monday.

Precise figures for the Dardanelle incumbent will be included in Federal Election Commission filings, which are due July 15.

Fundraising totals for Josh Mahony, a Fayetteville Democrat who hopes to unseat Cotton, weren’t available Monday.

Mahony’s campaign manager, Keith Rosendahl, said the figures will be released closer to next week’s deadline.

Cotton, first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, won a U.S. Senate seat in 2014 by defeating Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor.

Today, his donor base extends to all of Arkansas’ 75 counties.

“I’m proud to have the support of thousands of Arkansans who share my goals of higher pay for workers, lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, building a strong military and national security, and fighting to stop illegal immigration,” he said in a written statement.

In an email, Colas portrayed Cotton as well-positioned to win a second term.

“Senator Cotton’s approval ratings are high and he has nearly universal name recognition. This will allow us to use our cash on hand to make sure that all Arkansans are aware of Senator Cotton’s accomplishments and the choice they’ll have in this election between Senator Cotton and whomever is nominated to lose to him,” he said.

Despite the election being

nearly 16 months away, re-election efforts are already in full swing, he said.

“We now have more than 800 volunteers signed up from across the state. This month, we will open our first office and our volunteers will start going door to door,” he said. “We have also already paid for our major expenses like filming advertisements, our data work, and extensive campaign research.”

The first office will be in Little Rock, Colas added.

In an email, Rosendahl portrayed Cotton as better at wooing donors than at serving Arkansans.

“We’re not surprised Tom Cotton is eager to show off his fundraising — it seems to be the only part of his job he’s good at it. Josh’s campaign has gotten off to a great start, and unlike Tom Cotton, Josh isn’t relying on Washington lobbyists, special interests and Mitch McConnell to fund his campaign. We will release our numbers after we have a final tally and after we have filed our quarterly report with the FEC by the July 15th deadline,” he said.

This will be the second strong quarterly report that the Cotton campaign has posted this year.

It reported net contributions of $570,052 during the first quarter of the year, according to FEC paperwork filed in April.

In addition, Cotton for Senate received transfers from his joint fundraising committee — named Cotton Victory — totaling $354,493. (Cotton Victory collects money for Cotton for Senate as well as for Cotton’s leadership Political Action Committee — Republican Majority Fund.) Overall, the campaign’s total receipts for the quarter were $935,760.

Mahony, the first Democrat to enter the race, is the former chairman of the Fayetteville Airport Board. A past president of the Ozark Literacy Council board of directors and of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund, he ran unsuccessfully against Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Womack in Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District last year, receiving 32.6% of the vote.

He announced his campaign for the Senate on May 1.