Jacob Ogles
Rep. Vern Buchanan raised $3.34 million through the third quarter for his reelection campaign. The Sarasota Republican this year seeks an eighth term representing Florida’s 16th Congressional District.
That includes roughly $300,000 raised in the last quarter. That’s less than the $1.1 million Democratic opponent Margaret Good said she raised in the same quarter, but the incumbent sits on $1,079,260 in cash heading into the last month of the campaign.
The Buchanan campaign made clear he did not put in any of his own money this quarter.
Good’s official report shows she finished the quarter with $170,059, less than a sixth what Buchanan has available to spend. That’s after dropping upward of $1.8 million over the past three months.
At the end of the second quarter, Buchanan had $1.67 million and Good had $1.04 million.
For its part, the Buchanan campaign broadcast strength as it heads into the last weeks of the race.
“This is a race between a bipartisan congressman who has successfully passed 22 bills into law under three different presidents and a partisan gadfly with zero accomplishments whose campaign unraveled out of the starting gate and never recovered,” said Buchanan campaign manager Max Goodman.
The $3.34 million raised by the Sarasota Republican so far is considerably more than the $2.9 million Buchanan raised in 2018. That year, he fended off a challenge by Democrat David Shapiro by about 10 percentage points.
Like Shapiro, Good enjoys support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is part of its Red to Blue Program. But notably she did not make the list of candidates benefiting from the more recent “Swing The House” Project.
While recent rankings from prognosticators like FiveThirtyEight included CD 16 among Florida’s hottest House races, the models there still give Buchanan a 91% chance of reelection and say he is “clearly favored” to win.
The two campaigns in recent weeks have been in a sort of war of internal polling. A poll released to The Hill by the Good campaign last week showed the Democrat trailing Buchanan by just three points. But Buchanan’s team then released a poll to Florida Politics showing the incumbent clearing 50% with an 11-point lead.
Political observers note that as one of the wealthiest members of Congress, Buchanan maintains an ability to infuse his own campaign with cash if he ever believes the race has truly tightened. He’s already loaned his campaign $500,000 this cycle.
A book closing released Thursday by Florida’s Division of Elections shows 47,726 more Republicans than Democrats in the district. President Donald Trump won the district in 2016 by 11 points over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
