Evan McMullin outraised incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee during the last three months of 2021, according to the latest financial disclosure reports. But Lee, who was first elected to the senate in 2010, has much more campaign cash on hand.
In his first fundraising report since launching his run for U.S. Senate as an independent candidate, McMullin tallied $1,032,983 in donations. Lee reported $523,142. But, Lee has more than $2.16 million in cash reserves to McMullin’s $702,745.
The two Republicans challenging Lee for the GOP nomination trailed the senator in quarterly fundraising, according to the Federal Election Commission filings.
Becky Edwards reported $168,272 in donations and $507,856 in campaign cash, while Ally Isom’s report showed $101,279 in donations and $240,501 in cash on hand.
McMullin tallied more than 800 individual donations worth $794,245 for an average donation of about $970. Just under half (47%) of McMullin’s donors were from Utah, while another $238,737 in contributions were below the federal reporting threshold of $200. The McMullin campaign says data from those unitemized donors show a majority are from Utah, but that data is not publicly available on FEC reports.
More than 1,200 individual donations poured into Lee’s campaign for nearly $370,000, but there’s a catch: Just $257,887 of Lee’s contributions can be used in the run-up to the GOP convention on April 30, while $155,888 of those individual contributions are for either the primary contest or for the general election. More than 60% of Lee’s donations in the last quarter came from outside of Utah.
Lee also pulled more than $284,000 from political action committees and from other candidates. Nearly $200,000 of that cash is for the convention fight.
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