Fundraising for Cotton at $1.5M

Quarter touted by campaign

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., raised nearly $1.5 million during the second quarter of the year, his campaign announced Tuesday.

The state’s 43-year-old junior senator had his best fundraising quarter of the 2020 campaign cycle, according to his political director, Brian Colas.

He now has more than $6 million in cash on hand, “a record for an incumbent in Arkansas,” the campaign said.

“Thanks to the support of thousands of Arkansans, Senator Cotton is well positioned to win re-election and continue fighting for high-paying jobs for Arkansans, law and order, and stopping China’s aggression,” Colas said in a news release.

Of the $1.47 million raised by Cotton, more than $1 million was given by “small-dollar donors with an average donation of $31,” the campaign said. “Senator Cotton added more than 16,000 new donors including supporters from all 75 of Arkansas’s counties.”

Cotton received 56.5% of the vote when he defeated Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor in 2014.

This time, he faces no major-party opposition. The Democratic party’s lone candidate, Josh Mahony of Fayetteville, dropped out of the race hours after the Nov. 12 filing deadline, citing an unspecified “family health concern.”

Cotton, who grew up in Dardanelle, represented the state’s 4th Congressional District from 2012 to 2014. Last year, he moved from Yell County to Little Rock.

In November, he faces Ricky Dale Harrington, a Libertarian from Pine Bluff who called Cotton’s fundraising advantage unsurprising.

“I understand he’s the darling of the Republican Party and they’re trying to set him up for being [President Donald]

Trump’s successor,” he said. “It seems like he’s on Fox News every week.”

Harrington said he believes he recently surpassed the $5,000 fundraising mark and will be filing a report with the Federal Election Commission.

The deadline for the second-quarter report is today.

Dan Whitfield, an independent from Bella Vista, also filed to run against Cotton, but he failed to qualify. He is challenging the state’s ballot access laws in court, arguing that government-promulgated covid-19 restrictions hindered his ability to collect signatures.

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker last month ruled against Whitfield and another independent candidate. The case is being appealed.

Whitfield said he will file a Federal Election Commission report today showing second-quarter contributions of more than $24,000.