Diehl Senate campaign says it has $1 million in donations

Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl raised approximately $300,000 last quarter in his bid for the GOP nomination in the U.S. Senate race and his campaign claimed he is the first candidate in the primary to take in more than $1 million in donations.

“It shows that we have not only strong grass-roots support, but also good grassroots fundraising support,” Diehl campaign spokeswoman Holly Robichaud said.

The Diehl campaign declined to release a list of donors, but the year-end filings are due to the Federal Election Commission later this month.

Robichaud said the campaign raised about $300,000 in the fourth quarter of 2017 and has received donations from more than 9,000 people since launching last August.

Diehl supporters also collected 10,000 signatures to support a ballot question to lower the state sales tax to 5 percent and launched the “Diehl on Wheels” campaign bus, according to Robichaud, who said, “We’re pretty excited that the campaign is going full-throttle on multiple levels.”

Meanwhile, the campaign for Republican John Kingston, a Winchester businessman, declined to release its fourth-quarter fundraising numbers.

Kingston had a campaign balance of $3 million as of Sept. 30, mostly from the $3 million he loaned his own campaign, although he also took in $256,015 in donations.

“At the close of quarter three, John had the largest war chest of any GOP U.S. Senate challenger in the country and over 10 times the cash on hand of the only other Republican in this contest to raise any significant funds,” spokesman Jon Conradi said. “Based on early numbers floated by the Diehl campaign, we expect the final fourth quarter totals will show the same thing.”

Republican Beth Lindstrom’s campaign declined to release its fundraising numbers yesterday.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign announced Monday that it raised $14.6 million last year and has $14.1 million in the bank.