More than OK, Loomer: Laura Loomer outraises Lois Frankel for the second straight quarter

Republican congressional candidate and right-wing activist Laura Loomer has topped incumbent Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel in fundraising for the second straight month.

Still, Loomer has a long way to go to catch up to Frankel’s war chest, as Frankel has ten times as much cash on hand.

The two are competing in Florida’s 21st Congressional District, a seat which Frankel currently holds.

Loomer filed for the race in a long shot bid back in August. But according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Loomer has topped Frankel in money raised in both cycles since Loomer entered the race.

The latest FEC documents, covering Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, show Loomer added just over $202,000 in the quarter. That’s an improvement over her third quarter numbers, which showed the candidate collecting around $154,000.

Loomer has raised more than $356,000 since entering the CD 21 contest. But she’s burned through a fair bit of that cash already. In fact, the campaign spent nearly $88,000 in “online fundraising fees” from a pair of firms in just the fourth quarter alone. That offsets more than 40% of the cash Loomer brought in during the period.

She’ll carry over around $115,000 into 2020. That’s dwarfed by Frankel’s more than $1.1 million in cash on hand.

But Frankel added just under $155,000 during the fourth quarter, allowing Loomer to lap her for the period once again.

Several other candidates have filed for the race, but none have rivaled Loomer or Frankel in fundraising.

Christian Acosta, Piotr Blass, Michael Bluemling, Victor Garcia da Rosa, Aaron Scanlan, Reba Sherrill and Michael Vilardi are all listed as Republican candidates. On the Democratic side, Adam Aarons and Dennis Glassberg have filed to compete against Frankel.

The question surrounding Frankel’s fundraising: does Loomer’s lead signify a weak point for the incumbent, or has Frankel slowed down due to her large war chest and confidence she’ll be able to hold the seat regardless?

The district is heavily Democratic. Frankel won reelection in 2016 by more than 25 percentage points and ran unopposed in 2018.

And Loomer is certainly controversial. She came to prominence over social media after carrying out several attention-grabbing stunts. Loomer was eventually banned from Twitter after calling Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar “anti-Jewish.”

Loomer also appeared at a January Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting, where she was seen embracing Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub. The appearance was shortly after Lima-Taub claimed Michigan U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim, might “blow up Capitol Hill.”

The candidates’ next fundraising deadline is April 15, when they must disclose all money raised in the first three months of 2020.

Federal candidates faced a Friday deadline to report all financial activity through the end of 2019.