Democrat Analilia Mejia has outraised Republican Joe Hathaway by a more than two-to-one margin in advance of next week’s special election for the 11th congressional district, according to fundraising reports filed late last week.
In her pre-general election report, which covers the period between January 17 (20 days before the special primary election) and March 27, Mejia reported raising $676,309. The vast majority of that came after the competitive February 5 primary, once Mejia was the Democratic nominee and previously splintered Democratic donors could coalesce behind her.
Hathaway, meanwhile, raised $264,015 in the same two-month span; he did not face a contested fight for the GOP nomination, but his haul similarly came almost entirely after the primary had concluded.
In total, Mejia has raised $1,096,527 since launching her campaign, while Hathaway has raised $524,828 since launching his nearly two months earlier. Mejia also had a major cash-on-hand advantage heading into the final stretch of the race: $373,509 to Hathaway’s $109,237.
The 11th district leans towards Democrats, and Mejia is widely considered the favorite to win, a perception that is undoubtedly influencing the fundraising disparity between the two candidates. Only one poll of the race has been publicly released: a Mejia internal poll that found her leading Hathaway by 17 points.
Hathaway, though, is still far better-funded than some prior GOP nominees for the district, which was held by Gov. Mikie Sherrill until late last year. The GOP’s 2024 nominee, Joe Belnome, raised just $235,276 – the majority of it self-funded – across the entire cycle.
Mejia, for her part, is the second candidate in this year’s special election to cross the $1 million threshold. Former Rep. Tom Malinowski raised close to $1.2 million in the special Democratic primary alone, but Mejia was still able to beat him – and several other extremely well-funded candidates, one of whom had substantial super PAC backing – with a far smaller amount of money.
Since that primary, Mejia has won over the large majority of the Democratic establishment (including Malinowski, who will appear at a pro-Mejia town hall this evening). One of Mejia’s recent donors: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whom Mejia declined to explicitly support to be the next House Speaker during a debate last week.