A.G. Gancarski
State Rep. Clay Yarborough continues on the glide path to the state Senate, raising $61,000 more in November with no competition in the field.
Yarborough, a Republican who currently represents House District 12 in Jacksonville, looks to replace term-limited Sen. Aaron Bean next year.
Yarborough’s Floridians for Conservative Values political committee amassed $35,500 in new donations in November, with contributions from a variety of sources.
The TMN Florida PAC of The MENTOR Network, the Voice of Florida Business Political Action Committee and Humana all gave at the $5,000 level. Accounts associated with Florida East Coast Industries bundled, with their contributions adding up to $5,000 in four checks from the same South Florida address.
Floridians for Conservative Values closed November with nearly $464,000 cash on hand.
Yarborough also has more than $180,000 cash on hand in his campaign account after raising $25,500 in November.
The month’s hard money contributions were largely from political committees, and all but one of those was the maximum $1,000 donation. Groups representing the interests of emergency care doctors, osteopaths, and nurses were among the November contributors, as were insurance and banking interests.
For Yarborough, this strong fundraising hasn’t always been the norm.
Early in his Senate campaign, he found it difficult to match the fundraising of Rep. Jason Fischer, who was also running. But since Senate leadership endorsed Yarborough in July, his fundraising has surged and the field has cleared.
SD 4, which includes Nassau County and some of Duval, is a safe Republican seat. In 2020, it had 401,739 registered voters, and 190,503 of them were Republicans.
New maps are currently being drawn by the Senate, but SD 4 is expected to remain a Republican-performing district.
Even though Yarborough has copious resources and no apparent competition, there is still ample time for someone to emerge, however unlikely their chances.
The Primary Election, should another Republican qualify, is Aug. 23, 2022. The General Election is Nov. 8.
