Janelle Irwin Taylor
U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee raised $769,000 in the second quarter of 2024, which spans April through June.
That brings her total cash on hand between all funding sources to nearly $1.4 million, far exceeding either her Primary challengers or the lone Democrat in the race for Florida’s 15th Congressional District, Pat Kemp.
Lee’s second term haul includes $330,303 raised to her campaign account, Laurel Lee for Congress. Her political committee, Laurel Lee Victory Fund, brought in another more than $425,000 and her affiliated Florida Freedom Fund raised $13,500.
Lee’s campaign has more than $1.2 million remaining on hand, while the Florida Freedom Fund has more than $120,000 and the Laurel Lee Victory Fund nearly $26,000.
Lee faces two GOP Primary challengers, Jennifer Barbosa and James Judge. Barbosa has not filed fundraising disclosures, as of late Monday afternoon. Judge has raised less than $76,000 and has just over $2,000 on hand.
Lee, the heavy favorite to win the GOP Primary given her incumbency and massive cash advantage, will likely face Kemp in November. Kemp is unopposed in the Democratic Primary. She has raised nearly $166,000, and has a $40,000 loan in her coffers. After nearly $54,000 in disbursements, she has about $152,000 on hand, including the loan.
For the past month Lee has been running with renewed zeal after former President Donald Trump endorsed her. His support came just months after Trump had gone the other way and called for a Republican to challenge Lee in the Primary.
Trump’s call for a challenger was fueled by Lee’s initial support for Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP Presidential Primary. She later threw her support behind Trump, but it didn’t stop him from getting briefly involved in her race. Though he made the call for a challenger, it was the last the former President involved himself until he endorsed the freshman Congresswoman in mid-June.
Judge entered the race against Lee just days after Trump called for a challenger. Judge had been running in a neighboring district to challenge U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, also an incumbent Republican whom Trump has endorsed.
Barbosa previously ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California and is running on a Trump-aligned platform, including on his false contention that the 2020 election was stolen.
Kemp is a Hillsborough County Commissioner running in hopes of flipping CD 15 blue.
Cook Political Report rates the Lakeland-based district as R+4 and doesn’t include it in its list of competitive races this cycle. But the district has shifted more toward the center since Lee took office, dropping from R+6.
L2 Data Mapping shows the district with nearly 35% of its electorate registered to the GOP, compared to just over 33% for Democrats. There are about 8,000 more registered Republicans in the District than Democrats, with another more than 148,000 (29.5% of the electorate) without party affiliation.
