Russell lost race with nearly $300K remaining

U.S. Rep. Steve Russell had nearly $300,000 in his campaign coffers when he surprisingly lost re-election last month by a few thousand votes, campaign finance reports show.

The large amount of money raises questions about the Russell’s campaign’s management in the weeks before his upset loss to Kendra Horn on Nov. 6. It also raises the question of whether Russell will challenge Horn again in 2020.

“It really does seem that Russell believed he would win on the strength of his pre-congressional career … and the anti-Democrat wave seen in the vast majority of Oklahoma elections,” said Rose State College political science professor James Davenport, referring to Russell’s distinguished military career.

Horn consistently raised and spent more money than Russell, including in the final weeks. She raised $173,556 after Oct. 18 and Russell raised $103,185. She ultimately spent $389,399 more than Russell during the election cycle. Her campaign has $53,839 on hand but owes $49,300 in debt.

“When you have an aggressive opponent who is attempting to tap into a couple of issues that generally do favor Democrats, education and health care, and you don’t respond, at least enough to be seen, it almost leaves the impression that he didn’t really care if he was re-elected or not,” Davenport said. “And I think voters responded accordingly.”

Russell’s decision to spend relatively little money as the race was tightening in October and to leave $295,348 unspent on Election Day has baffled political observers on all sides of the spectrum. JD Johannes, his former campaign manager, said Friday that Russell pledged much of the unspent money to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“Despite me and others urging him to spend those funds during the campaign, Colonel Russell is not the type of candidate to go back on a pledge for his own personal gain,” Johannes said.

“Colonel Russell made a pledge to run a clean campaign and not run negative ads. He kept that pledge. Colonel Russell made and kept two pledges in the campaign that likely were to his own detriment. How many politicians do that?”

Russell has rejected claims that his decision not to air negative ads ultimately harmed him, instead citing the 5th District’s changing demographics. In remarks to the National Journal last month, he expressed frustration with Horn’s focus on what he considers to be state issues: health care and education.

“If you don’t study the issues, like a dog lapping up antifreeze, you’ll lick it up; it tastes good. There’s consequences,” he said of voters.