Broyles outraises Inhofe in quarter
Bice edges out Horn in fundraising in closely watched US House race
Democratic Senate candidate Abby Broyles outraised Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe in the third quarter, while Republican state Sen. Stephanie Bice's three-month fundraising total topped that of Democratic Rep. Kendra Horn, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday.
Broyles, making her first political race, raised $911,763 from July 1 through Sept. 30 and finished the quarter with $273,152 in her campaign account. Inhofe, who has been in the Senate since 1994, raised $876,409 and had nearly $1.7
million in his account at the end of September.
"The momentum is clearly with our campaign,” Broyles said. “To date, we have more than 30,000 individual contributions, showing Oklahomans are ready for change. They' re joining us against an entrenched Washington insider who relies on big corporations and defense contractors to hide behind his false attack ads against me.”
Inhofe campaign manager Evan Handy said, “Senator In ho fe is grateful for the strong support from conservative Oklahomans who stand f or our values and oppose liberal court-packing, job killing socialist policies and a defunded police force.”
Broyles' report, filed with the Federal Election Commission, shows donations from Brad Henry, David Walters and George Nigh — the last three Democrats to serve as governor in Oklahoma — along with lawyers, educators, health care providers and others. Broyles, a lawyer and former television reporter, got $ 35,000 from political action committees, including ones associated with Democratic senators and with unions representing workers in communication, sheet metal and electrical jobs.
Broyles' campaign has now raised more than $1.6 million since last year.
Inhofe's campaign has raised $5.3 million since his last campaign in 2014. His most recent report shows $ 243,350 was collected from political action committees (PACs), with the rest coming mostly from individual donors.
The PACs giving to Inhofe included builders, bankers, t el ecommunications companies, farm groups, defense contractors and Senate colleagues.
National political pollsters and handicappers have forecast an easy re-election for Inhofe, but Broyles has raised three times as much money as Inhofe's Democratic opponent in 2014; it has been enough to air a series of negative ads, though Inhofe's campaign has responded with an even bigger ad campaign.
5th District money
Bice's campaign filed a report on Thursday covering the period from Aug. 6 through Sept. 30. The first part of the quarter, July 1 through Aug. 5, was covered in a pre-runoff report filed with the Federal Election Commission in August.
Combined, the reports show Bice raised $1.5 million from July 1 through Sept. 30, which is a record quarterly haul for an Oklahoma candidate for the U.S. House.
“I'm grateful for the support of so many Oklahomans, who like me, are tired of Washington' s inability to get things done,” Bice said. “I'm going to Congress to do what I've done in the Senate — work to solve the big intractable problems, not just to take orders from (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi.”
Bice has reported raising a total of $2.7 million since her campaign began in April 2019. Her campaign had nearly $872,000 left at the end of September.
Her latest report shows more than $943,000 collected from individuals and $236,100 from PACs; the campaign received PAC donations from the NRA; a Fraternal Order of Police chapter in Oklahoma City; and energy, agriculture, financial and other interests.
Horn's campaign has now raised nearly $5.3 million since her upset win in 2018 in the 5th Congressional District, which includes most of Oklahoma County and Pottawatomie and Seminole counties.
The race is considered one of the most competitive House contests in the nation, and outside groups aligned with both major parties are spending millions of dollars on negative ads.
In the quarter covering July t hr ough September, Horn reported $1.47 million in total receipts, with $1.2 million coming from individuals, $161,000 from PACs and the rest from other fundraising committees; among the PACs donating to Horn's campaign were ones representing family physicians, federal employees, postal workers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the League of Conservation Voters and several House colleagues.
Horn's campaign had $1.4 million left at the end of September.
Horn campaign manager Ward Curtin said, “Kendra's campaign is building momentum because people here know what's at stake. In the midst of a pandemic, our opponent is threatening to abolish the Affordable Care Act and run people off their insurance.”