Maria Elvira Salazar narrowly edges Donna Shalala in first fundraising report of 2020

Maria Elvira Salazar Donna Shalala
The two had swapped fundraising leads in the final two quarters of 2019.

Republican candidate Maria Elvira Salazar eked out a narrow fundraising win over Democratic U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala in the first quarter of 2020.

Salazar brought in more than $314,000 from Jan. 1 through March 31, edging out the $308,000 raised by the incumbent in Florida’s 27th Congressional District.

The two had swapped leads in the previous two quarters, though the first-quarter gap is far tighter than in previous reporting periods.

Salazar topped Shalala in the 3rd quarter of 2019 by about $140,000, not including a $50,000 candidate loan. The third quarter was her first since entering the race in August. Shalala outraised her by $240,000 in the fourth quarter.

The two candidates also faced off in the 2018 race for CD 27, with Shalala defeating Salazar by 6 percentage points.

But Salazar still has a ways to go to catch up to Shalala’s cash on hand.

Salazar has raised nearly $1.2 million this cycle and has $900,000 on hand.

Shalala, meanwhile, has topped $2 million in receipts this cycle, with more than $1.4 million in the bank.

The new finance reports showed continued struggles for Enrique Tarrio. Tarrio, who leads far-right group the Proud Boys, is also competing for the Republican nomination.

Though Tarrio entered the race in November, he did not file a fourth-quarter fundraising report because his total was so low the Federal Elections Commission did not require him to submit a report. The campaign confirmed that in a document submitted to the FEC.

“This Committee has not yet exceeded the $5,000 reporting threshold that would trigger the Committee’s reporting responsibilities under the Act,” the document states.

His first-quarter report wasn’t much better. Tarrio raised just over $8,100 and had $3,200 on hand on March 31.

It wasn’t clear how far below the bar he was until his first-quarter report was posted. Subtracting the first-quarter total from to-date total shows he raised $25 last year.

In January, Tarrio told the Miami New Times said he hadn’t begun actively raising money in the fourth quarter.

Federal campaigns faced a Wednesday deadline to report all financial activity through March 31.

Ryan Nicol

Ryan Nicol covers news out of South Florida for Florida Politics. Ryan is a native Floridian who attended undergrad at Nova Southeastern University before moving on to law school at Florida State. After graduating with a law degree he moved into the news industry, working in TV News as a writer and producer, along with some freelance writing work. If you'd like to contact him, send an email to [email protected].



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