14th District drawing national money
Democrats vying to unseat Rep. Greene are sparking interest
Northwest Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is spending a lot of money to raise money for her 2022 campaign.
The Rome Republican’s latest filing with the Federal Elections Commission shows she has just under $2.8 million in the bank.
For the period covered in the latest quarterly report — April 1 through June 30 — she spent about $1 million and took in $1.5 million. During the previous quarter she spent $1.4 million to bring in $3.2 million.
Candidates who have already announced they’re running against her next year have far less to work with at this point.
Republican Mark Daniel Clay of Adairsville spent $2,910 of the $6,000 he started with and reported $3,090 cash on hand. The primary to choose party nominees is scheduled for May 24, 2022.
Four Democrats also have active campaigns registered with the FEC.
Marcus Flowers, a veteran from Bremen, was in the financial lead with $234,578 on hand as of March 31. He had not yet filed his June 30 report, which was due Thursday.
Rome City Commissioner Wendy Davis, who jumped into the race in May, reported raising $118,104 and spending $6,727 over the two-month period. Her balance at the end of June was $111,377.
Holly McCormack of Ringgold has raised nearly $250,000 since she declared her candidacy in the first quarter of the year. She reported a total of $60,010 in the bank as of June 30.
Lateefah B. Conner of Dallas had $26,335 in her campaign fund at the end of March and had not yet filed her second quarter report.
Georgia’s 14th Congressional District covers the counties of Floyd, Gordon, Polk, Chattooga, Walker, Catoosa, Dade, Whitfield, Haralson, Murray and Paulding, and part of Pickens.
It is one of the most heavily Republican districts in the state, although the Georgia General Assembly is slated to redraw the voting maps this fall when 2020 census numbers are released.
A deeper dive
Greene’s reported activity over the past few months shows a candidate criss-crossing the country to raise funds.
She’s also spent tens of thousands of dollars with Facebook for virtual events and with a New Jersey-based mobile messaging firm. Mudshare taps into data generated by mobile devices and apps to identify potentially receptive consumers and their habits. It then contacts them through social media, texts, automated phone calls and emails.
Travel also accounts for a large part of Greene’s expenditures. There are numerous payments for commercial air flights, Ubers, hotel rooms and meals. While the bulk of the receipts are for typical costs, with flights and rooms in the $100 to $200 range, several trips to Florida were pricier.
A meal at Charley’s Steak House in Orlando on Feb. 26 was listed at $3,205. Another meal on March 23 — at Morton’s The Steakhouse in West Palm Beach, near former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago — was $1,000.
Greene also spent $5,868 at Morton’s on April 22, and made three payments of $384 each for rooms at the West Palm Beach Courtyard by Marriott on April 24.
She also listed over $60,000 in legal fees and still owes herself $500,000 from the $9.5 million personal loan she made to her 2020 campaign.
Greene’s donors were from almost every state in the nation and many of them made monthly contributions. Of the hundreds reported in her second quarter filing, 36 of them were from the 14th District and a majority of those were women.
Davis’ first filing shows more than two-thirds of her contributions came from Georgia — and at least half of that from people within the 14th District.
She’s a member of the Democratic National Committee and also drew support from relationships she’s developed there during her years as a political consultant. She also added a personal loan of just under $5,000.
Most of Davis’ expenses were payments to NGP VAN, a voter database and web hosting service provider used by the Democratic Party, and Act Blue, an online fundraising site also used by the party.
On June 22 Davis paid $227 for a staff meal at El Zarape in Rome.
McCormack reported taking in $164,725 and spending $148,514 between April 1 and June 30.
Through the Act Blue site, McCormack drew contributions from numerous states, including Georgia, but few from within the district. A big bump of $1,000 came from a group called Downballot Dems based in Paulding County.
In addition to Act Blue fees, McCormack spent money on several different types of campaign materials including videos, photography, design services, printing and mailings. She also listed payments to five campaign staffers and several consulting firms.
An $1,800 payment went to The Campaign School at Yale University for candidate training. McCormack also spent a total of $3,090 for lodging at the Mainstay Suites in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on six occasions in May and June.