A.G. Gancarski
Fundraising reports from the Florida Department of State Division of Elections show that Rep. Tracie Davis continued to build her cash advantage over a primary challenger as July ended.
The Jacksonville Democrat raised $7,200 from July 25 to 31, giving her a total of $89,745 raised in the 2020 cycle. The campaign spent $33,200 of that sum as of the latest accounting.
An incumbent seeking her third term, Davis was able to tap into support from business interests. ABC Liquors, Florida Architects, and the Florida Bankers Association all gave the maximum $1,000 contribution.
Also donating to Davis: her 2016 Republican challenger, Rev. Mark Griffin.
The candidate is spending big, with nearly $20,000 going out the door in the last week of July, the vast majority of it for marketing collateral.
As Davis enters the home stretch of the 2020 campaign, her primary challenger is floundering.
Cynthia Smith, whose campaign is managed by a former Rep. Kim Daniels legislative aide who flirted with a 2018 campaign against Davis for the same seat, has not been able to get traction with donors.
She raised just $480 between July 25 and 31, following up on an equally anemic $300 fundraising tally the week prior.
Even as the campaign began, it was difficult to ascertain where her organic base was against Davis, an ideologically conventional Democrat who appeals to business and labor types.
Smith has raised $18,805 total, and has spent $13,513 of that.
Davis and Smith will face off in an open primary. No NPA or Republican candidates are running, so all residents of the district will have a voice.
Rep. Daniels of HD 14, meanwhile, has her own primary challenger and fundraising problems.
The evangelist-turned-politician raised nothing during the last week of July and just $510 the week before that, and despite support from Tallahassee Republicans, has been forced largely to fund her own reelection campaign, pouring in almost $76,000 to keep her seat.
Counting the self-funding, Daniels has raised $124,360, spending $21,770 of that so far.
Challenger Angie Nixon, backed by Rep. Davis and a host of mainstream Democrats in Duval County and beyond, continues to raise steady money even as she lacks the recourse to self-finance in Daniels’ manner.
Nixon raised $8,407 in the last week of July. All told, she has raised $114,841 and spent $21,770 of that.
A write-in candidate has filed in HD 14, so the primary there is a Democrat-only affair.
