Ryan Nicol
Republican candidate Carlos Giménez is trailing incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for the second straight quarter, according to the most recent financial reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Giménez raised just over $617,000 during the most recent quarter, which covers financial activity from April 1-June 30. Giménez has now topped $1 million raised in just two quarters since he entered the race in January.
Mucarsel-Powell, however, added close to $837,000 during the quarter, topping Giménez by nearly $220,000. Overall, she’s raised nearly $3.8 million this cycle.
The incumbent retains more than $2.75 million in cash on hand. Giménez is sitting on just over $860,000, according to documents filed with the FEC. Candidates faced a Wednesday, July 15 deadline to report all financial activity through the end of the quarter.
Mucarsel-Powell is unopposed on the Democratic side in Florida’s 26th Congressional District. That means she has a free path to defending her seat this November.
Giménez, however, must compete in the Republican primary against Omar Blanco, the former head of Miami-Dade Firefighters Local 1403. That could further cause Giménez to burn through his war chest more quickly in the next two months than Mucarsel-Powell.
Blanco has struggled to keep up in the fundraising game. He added just over $43,000 during the second quarter of 2020, well short of the $617,000 hauled in by Giménez.
Blanco has collected just over $170,000 in total since entering the race last August. He has only $67,000 remaining as of June 30.
The district spans portions of southern Miami-Dade County, including Homestead, as well as all of Monroe County, covering the Keys.
Mucarsel-Powell won the seat in 2018 by defeating former Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo by just two percentage points. Mucarsel-Powell herself has said she expects the CD 26 contest to be “one of the toughest” in the nation.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has placed Mucarsel-Powell in its Frontline Program, which funnels resources to potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the House.
Mucarsel-Powell will make that task easier if she continues to outraise Giménez, who has significant name recognition in the county due to his eight-year tenure as Mayor.
Giménez and Blanco will face off in the Aug. 18 GOP primary for the right to challenge Mucarsel-Powell.
One comment
Larry Gillis
July 15, 2020 at 8:53 pm
This is not a basketball game you are writing about, Ryan, and campaign money is NOT the way to keep score.
These campaigns are about IDEAS, about POLICY, about VISION. Why don’t you lean on the candidates about their platforms and have some back-and-forth on that?
In the meantime, vote Libertarian.
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
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