The Human Fundraising Machine won the Democratic primary with more than 70% of the vote against a progressive who scored Bernie Sanders’ endorsement and it hardly made a dent in his warchest.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) raised an epic $1,303,868 during the 2nd quarter of 2020 and how has an astronomic $8,848,589 cash-on-hand as he seeks re-election to a third term against Republican Frank Pallotta.
If anything, primary opponent Arati Kreibich fueled Gottheimer’s hulking fundraising advantage.
Kreibich reported raising $50,000 in the three days following Sanders’ endorsement. During the same 72 hours, Gottheimer had a $100,000 fundraising haul. In the final two weeks of June, Gottheimer brought in more than $436,000.
Gottheimer has brought in more than $5.7 million during the current cycle, and as raised more than $17.24 million since announcing his first congressional bid five years ago. That number doesn’t include more than $1 million raised for other Democratic candidates.
He unseated seven-term Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) in 2016 by four percentage points and was re-elected by sixteen points in 2018.
Donald Trump carried New Jersey’s 5th district by one percentage point in 2016– a 4,089-vote plurality.
The district now has 13,901 more Democrats than Republicans. That’s a shift from a GOP registration advantage of 2,370 on Election Day 2016.
Pallotta has not yet filed his 2nd quarter Federal Election Commission report. He had reported raising $553,639 before the primary – including $310,000 of his own money – and had $40,713 cash-on-hand.