The Human Fundraising Machine is raising money unlike any congressman New Jersey has ever seen.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer raised a mastodonic $907,658 during the second quarter of 2019 and has amassed a $5,683,966 warchest seventeen months before the next election.
The behemoth haul comes after raising $830,063 during the first three months of the year.
During his first six months as a congressman in 2017, Gottheimer raised $1.6 million. Now he’s topped that number, bring in in more than $1.7 million during the first half of his second term in the House.
Gottheimer raised $7,002,979 and spent $2,952,240 during his 2018 campaign, according to post-election reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission. He defeated former Cresskill councilman John McCann by 41,291 votes in a district almost evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans that Donald Trump carried by one percentage point.
A former Clinton White House speechwriter and Microsoft executive, Gottheimer ousted seven-term Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) in 2016 by a 51%-47% margin. He outspent Garrett, $4,782,462 to $2,411,570 and outspent him by $400,250.
Gottheimer’s fundraising prowess comes as three Republicans have already entered the race to challenge him: McCann, Montvale Mayor Michael Ghassali, and Frank Pallotta, a former investment banker with the ability to self-fund.