Ryan Nicol
Republican candidate Maria Elvira Salazar topped incumbent Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala in fundraising for the second straight quarter.
Shalala did manage to increase her cash on hand lead, however, as she seeks to defend her seat in Florida’s 27th Congressional District.
Salazar collected nearly $560,000 during the second quarter of 2020. That’s according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission which covered financial activity April 1-June 30.
That number is a jump from Salazar’s first quarter total, when she raised more than $314,000. Both hauls were enough to top Shalala.
Salazar has added more than $1.7 million so far this cycle and has more than $1.2 million still on hand.
Shalala leads in that latter metric though, with $1.8 remaining in her war chest. The freshman Congresswoman added $532,000 in the second quarter and has collected more than $2.6 million overall.
Though Shalala fell about $26,000 short in money raised during the last quarter, she also spent $34,000 less than Salazar’s total raised. That allowed Shalala to expand her cash on hand lead.
Shalala won the open seat in 2018, defeating Salazar by 6 percentage points.
While Shalala has a clear path to the general election on the Democratic side, Salazar is part of a three-person contest to secure the GOP nomination and force a rematch.
In terms of money raised, Salazar is dominating her two opponents, Juan Fiol and Raymond Molina.
Molina took in less than $12,000 in the second quarter, while Fiol added only $1,300. Write-in candidate Frank Polo Sr. also qualified for the contest, but raised under $300 last quarter. All maintain barely any money going forward.
Federal campaigns faced a Wednesday deadline to report all financial activity through June 30.
