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RICHMOND — Democrats running in Virginia’s high-stakes General Assembly races raked in millions more than Republican candidates as Election Day nears, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has been closing the gap with out-of-state GOP megadonors enticed by his prolonged flirtation with a 2024 presidential bid.
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With all 140 House and Senate seats on the ballot Nov. 7, individual Democrats raised a combined $15 million while Republicans brought in about $10.6 million between July 1 and Aug. 31, according to an analysis released Saturday by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.
Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia political action committee raised $3.8 million over that period, including a $1 million donation from billionaire Thomas Peterffy, a major national GOP donor and Florida resident who also made a $1 million contribution to the PAC in April.
Rupert Murdoch encouraged Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin to seek presidency
The outcome on Election Day will shape Youngkin’s trajectory as a presidential hopeful and Virginia’s as a relatively liberal outlier among Southern states. If Republicans hold the House and flip the Senate, Youngkin will have the allies he needs to enact a conservative agenda that includes banning abortion after 15 weeks, with some exceptions.
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Virginia is the only Southern state that has not tightened restrictions on the procedure since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year.
Both chambers are up for grabs in elections playing out on new legislative maps that created far more open seats and uncertainty than usual. Republicans are defending a narrow majority in the House (49-46), as are Democrats in the Senate (22-18).
The big money is guaranteed to bombard Virginians with TV ads, mailers and door-knockers through November. Early voting begins Friday.
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“This is on track to be the most expensive Virginia midterm in the commonwealth’s history,” said Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington. “Because the parties are so much more ideologically distinct than used to be the case, the stakes are very high for the future direction of Virginia.”
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Youngkin’s public flirtation with a potential last-minute entry into the GOP presidential primary — a move some prominent GOP donors have urged him to make as they’ve cooled to former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — has only served to draw more interest and money to what could have been sleepy elections, with no statewide contests on the ballot.
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“Whether Youngkin runs for president this year or not, the presidential conversation is already paying off for him,” Farnsworth said. “His political legacy depends on Republican majorities in the House and Senate. And his ability to raise money as a possible presidential candidate can help fund those close races that Republicans will need to win to secure majorities.”
Democrats benefited from massive donations from Charlottesville investor Michael Bills, who during the last period dumped $3 million into Clean Virginia Fund, a climate group that mostly bankrolls Democrats along with a few Republicans who have bucked utility giant Dominion Energy. That comes on top of $3.8 million Bills gave to the fund earlier this year — and the $1.6 million that his wife, Sonja Smith, donated to Democrats or allied groups.
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“It’s extraordinary that a single individual has kept them ahead of the Republicans,” longtime Richmond political analyst Bob Holsworth said of Bills, noting that Democrats also led Republicans in small donations, which is considered a sign of grassroots support.
Taken together, Democrats running for Senate raised $7.5 million between July 1 and Aug. 31 while their Republican counterparts raised $4.9 million. The Democrats’ Senate candidates also led their GOP rivals in cash on hand heading into September, $7.2 million to $6.6 million.
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Four of the top five Senate fundraisers were Democrats. The candidate who hauled in the most was Democrat Russet Perry, who raised $1.3 million over the period. She faces Republican Juan Pablo Segura in Senate District 31, competitive territory that covers parts of Loudoun and Fauquier counties. Segura, the lone Republican to crack the top five, reported raising about $653,000.
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The second-highest Senate fundraiser was Sen. T. Montgomery “Monty” Mason (D-Williamsburg), who is facing a challenge in Hampton Roads swing territory from Republican Danny Diggs. Mason raised about $1 million to Diggs’s $629,000.
Rounding out the top five were two House Democrats seeking to move to the Senate, Dels. Schuyler VanValkenburg (Henrico) and Danica A. Roem (Prince William).
VanValkenburg raised about $976,000 in July and August. He is trying unseat Sen. Siobhan S. Dunnavant (R-Henrico), who raised about $507,000, in a redrawn suburban Richmond district that now leans Democratic. Roem raised $641,000 in her bid for an open, blue-leaning seat that covers Manassas and part of Prince William County. She faces Republican Bill Woolf, who raised about $266,000 over the period.
Democrats running for the House raised a total of about $7.5 million — about the same as Democrats running for Senate — while Republican House candidates as a whole raised about $5.8 million. The Democrats running for the House also had the edge in cash on hand at the end of the period, $9.9 million to the Republicans’ $9.3 million.
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As was the case with the Senate, four of the top five House fundraisers for the period were Democrats. The top fundraiser was Democrat Michael Feggans, who is trying to unseat Karen Greenhalgh in House District 97, competitive territory that covers part of Virginia Beach. Feggans raised $633,000 for the period. Greenhalgh, with the second-highest haul, was not far behind with $598,000.
The House candidate with the third-highest fundraising was Susanna Gibson, who raised $595,000 for an open seat in a competitive suburban district west of Richmond, covering parts of Henrico and Goochland counties. Her Republican opponent, David Owen, raised $188,000.
The fundraising period closed Aug. 31 — before The Washington Post reported last week that Gibson performed sex acts with her husband for a live online audience and encouraged viewers to pay them with “tips” for specific requests. Gibson called the exposure of the videos “an illegal invasion of my privacy.” Casting Gibson as the victim of an unfair Republican attack, some Democrats sought to turn the episode into a fundraising opportunity.
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Two other Democrats round out the top five House fundraisers: former delegate Joshua Cole, who is running in a competitive district that includes Fredericksburg and parts of Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, and Del. Rodney Willett (Henrico), whose suburban Richmond territory leans blue.
Cole raised about $588,000 while his opponent, Republican Lee Peters, drew $352,000. Willett collected $535,000, substantially more than the $182,000 raised by GOP challenger Riley Shaia.
The big money reeled in by Youngkin’s PAC could help his party stay competitive with Democrats. In addition to the $1 million from Peterffy, Spirit of Virginia raised $300,000 from the Republican State Leadership Committee PAC, and $125,000 from Tassos Paphites of Virginia Beach, one of the nation’s largest Taco Bell franchisees.
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Youngkin has been the object of presidential speculation since the former Carlyle Group executive and political novice flipped seemingly blue Virginia red in November 2021. Although he has failed to register in national polls, he still gets mentioned as a potential latecomer to the GOP presidential primary.
Youngkin has insisted all along that he is focused entirely on Virginia, despite hectic cross-country political travel throughout his first 20 months in office and his PAC’s naked efforts to stoke the White House buzz — including the release of a video that cast him as the successor to Ronald Reagan.
Last month, Youngkin courted billionaire Republican megadonors in the Hamptons at the home of Trump’s former commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross. The guest list was private but among those the New York Post reported attending was Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins, who held a fundraiser for Trump’s reelection effort in 2019.
Stephen Ross later gave $25,000 to Youngkin’s PAC. Another New York billionaire, Stanley Druckenmiller, gave $75,000 to the PAC in August.
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