Democrat Nina Yoakum picks up 3,000 contributions in two weeks

Rene Plasencia and Nina Yoakum
Micro contributions helping Yoakum keep up with Rene Plasencia.

House District 50 candidate Nina Yoakum has become yet another Democratic legislative candidate in Florida benefiting from micro-donations that national Democratic organizations are soliciting toward Florida races.

Yoakum’s latest campaign finance report shows she picked up nearly 3,100 donations in the two-week period of Oct. 3-16. The vast majority were for less than $10, and from throughout the country, solicited by various Democratic organizations and funneled through the ActBlue campaign finance contributions platform.

With two $1,000 checks she also received from out of state, her campaign managed to raise $36,287 for the House District 50 contest with Republican Rep. Rene Plasencia.

Yoakum’s campaign also attracted more than 3,000 checks in the previous two-week period. The $62,000 those contributions have helped her collect since mid-September accounts for more than half the money her campaign has raised since she initiated her run for HD 50 in the summer of 2019.

She spent about $25,000 during the two-week period. So on Oct. 16, Yoakum, of Orlando, had about $66,000 left to spend, with micro-donations continuing to arrive through ActBlue.

Plasencia, a three-term Representative, reported raising $18,700 during the Oct. 3-16 period, on 26 total contributions, including 13 $1,000 checks.

He spent more than $45,000 during the most recent two-week reporting period, and had about $55,000 left in his official campaign fund.

Plasencia also has an independent political committee, Commitment to Opportunity, Action and Community Health, that reported collecting $26,000 and spending $28,000 during the first three weeks of October. It had about $25,000 in hand on Oct. 25.

HD 50 covers parts of southern and eastern Orange County, and northwestern Brevard County.

In another highly-contested Orange County House race, for House District 44 in southwestern Orange County, Democratic Rep. Geraldine Thompson of Orlando reported raising $16,803 while Republican challenger Bruno Portigliatti of Orlando reported raising $11,700 during the period of Oct. 3-16.

Thompson also spent $41,000 and so on Oct. 16 she had about $49,000 left in the bank.

Portigliatti reported spending $25,000 and had about $21,000 left in his official campaign fund.

He also has an independent political committee, Liberty and Prosperity Fund, which reported picking up $10,000 in new contributions and spending about that much. On Oct. 26, it had about $21,000 left to spend.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].


One comment

  • Sonja Fitch

    October 26, 2020 at 7:44 am

    There is no Republican Party! There is only the goptrump DEATH cult! Trump has a super spreader rallies that provides for followers suicide and as community spreaders for nazi HERD IMMUNITY! Vote Democrat up and down ballot for the common good!

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