Ryan Nicol
Democratic U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel is once again trailing Republican challenger Laura Loomer in quarterly fundraising as Frankel seeks to defend her seat in Florida’s 21st Congressional District.
It’s the third straight quarter Loomer has topped Frankel. But the incumbent still holds a large cash-on-hand lead. Frankel has more than $1.25 million on hand going forward, while Loomer holds about one tenth of that, with $126,000.
Still, Loomer was able to top Frankel in money raised during the first quarter of 2020. Loomer added nearly $205,000, according to the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Frankel, meanwhile, added just over $83,000.
But Loomer also burned through all but $11,000 during the quarter. Frankel spent just over $18,000, for a net of about $65,000. That allowed her to expand the cash-on-hand advantage over Loomer despite bringing in less money overall.
Frankel also continues to hold a lead in overall fundraising this cycle — though that’s mostly due to having a head start over Loomer. Frankel has brought in nearly $690,000 in total to Loomer’s, $561,000. Loomer only joined the contest last summer, however.
While Loomer is managing to collect a decent chunk of cash, she’s still fighting an uphill battle in the contest. CD 21 is heavily Democratic. Frankel won reelection in 2016 by more than 25 percentage points and ran unopposed in 2018.
Loomer is a right-wing activist who came to prominence after carrying out several attention-grabbing stunts, and was 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.”
Several other candidates have filed for the race, but most have been unable to rival Loomer or Frankel in fundraising.
Republican candidate Christian Acosta raised nearly $57,000 in the first quarter, but he’s raised just over $80,000 overall and has less than $28,000 remaining.
Republicans Piotr Blass, Michael Bluemling, Victor Garcia da Rosa, Aaron Scanlan, Reba Sherrill and Michael Vilardi are also running. On the Democratic side, Adam Aarons Dennis Glassberg and Guido Weiss have are challenging Frankel. Sylvia Caravetta filed as a write-in candidate.
Vilardi raised just over $10,000 in the quarter, while Weiss collected a little over $6,000. Reports for the remaining candidates were not available as of this posting.
Federal campaigns faced a Wednesday deadline to report all financial activity through March 31.
2 comments
Cat'sMeow
April 15, 2020 at 7:33 pm
This writer seems concerned about Omar and Tlaib, who have shown themselves on more than one occasion, to be anti-Semitic and anti-American. He tries to paint Laura Loomer as bad, while those two are good.
Again, the insidious method of trying to support Lois frankel, without looking too obvious about it.
Frankel has done nothing to help Floridians or even Americans. Her best trait, is knowing how to win elections and become entrenched in her job.
Frankel had a long time to do something good for the people, she blew it, give someone else a chance to serve.
Michael O'Rourke
April 18, 2020 at 3:05 pm
Ryan, I am curious. Do you really think Ilian Omar is NOT anti-semetic? I mean, you are supposed to be a journalist, right? Do you follow the statements of the members of Congress?
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/07/700901834/minnesota-congresswoman-ignites-debate-on-israel-and-anti-semitism
Just in case you missed it. Here’s an article from NPR, not exactly a right-wing propaganda tool. You should read it. You might want to learn about the people you are reporting on instead of writing opinion as if it were fact. BTW that is supposed to be the basic rule of journalism, get the facts.
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