Bill Nelson raises over $2 million in first quarter

FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2014 file photo, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. listens on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democratic senators on Friday called on federal regulators to investigate Verizon Wireless, the country’s biggest mobile provider, for secretly inserting unique tracking codes into the Web traffic of its some 100 million customers. Data privacy experts have accused Verizon of violating consumers’ privacy by using “supercookies,” an identifying string of letters and numbers attached to each site visited on a person’s mobile device. “This whole supercookie business raises the specter of corporations being able to peek into the habits of Americans without their knowledge or consent,” said Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, in a statement. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)

Florida’s sole statewide elected Democrat is off to a strong start in his bid for re-election, according to first-quarter fundraising numbers released today by his campaign.

 U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, up for re-election in 2018, will be reporting more than $2 million raised from more than 4,500 individual donors during the first three months of the year.

The $2 million-plus haul is on top of the nearly $1.8 million Nelson had in the bank before January 1, giving the state’s senior senator more than $3.6 million cash on hand.

The numbers released today come on the heels of several recent polls showing Nelson with a solid lead over his likely GOP challenger.

A poll released last month by the Florida Chamber of Commerce showed Nelson leading Florida Gov. Rick Scott in a hypothetical 2018 matchup by 6 points, 48 — 42.

Another poll released late February by the University of North Florida showed Nelson leading Scott by the same 6-point margin, 44 — 38.

Candidates’ first-quarter fundraising reports are due April 15.