Cory Mills raises $160K in first quarter as freshman Congressman

U.S. Rep. Cory Mills pulled in almost $160,000 in his first quarter as a sitting Congressman. That comes after he flipped a district red, aided by the redistricting process shifting it to a Republican-leaning jurisdiction.

His first quarter haul includes a $50,000 loan put in by the Winter Garden Republican himself.

But Mills has good reason to raise capital. He won an open seat representing Florida’s 7th Congressional District, defeating Democrat Karen Green in November with about 56% of the vote.

That was after former U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Winter Park Democrat, elected not to seek another term. While she cited family reasons, Murphy pulled out after a new congressional map crafted by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ staff shifted CD 7 from a seat Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential Election by 10 percentage points to one where Republican Donald Trump by more than 5 points.

That map is currently being challenged in court.

Mills collected $79,250 in the first quarter from contributions and also saw outside committees transfer $26,266 to his account. With Mills’ loan and various offsets, the campaign reported a total $159,658 in receipts for the quarter.

But he spent plenty too, around $111,425.

Mills closed the quarter with $74,255 in cash-on-hand.

In the 2022 election cycle, Mills ultimately raised more than $2.6 million as he won his first term in the House.

In 2022, Democrats hardly put up a fight with Green. The hardest of Mills’ path to Congress was winning a Republican Primary, where he defeated former state Rep. Anthony Sabatini. This cycle, Sabatini announced he will challenge U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster in a neighboring district.

To date, Mills doesn’t have a significant opponent. Nobody has filed to challenge Mills in a GOP Primary. Only one Democrat has taken steps to run.

Democrat Allek Pastrana has filed and opened a federal account in February, but raised no money in the first quarter and is working with a $10,000 candidate loan. He ended the period with $4,546 in the bank.

Green defeated Pastrana in a Democratic Primary last year.