$50K per day: Devin Nunes is raking in cash for 2020 re-election campaign
Rep. Devin Nunes raised $4.5 million for his re-election campaign from March to June, fueling one of the largest fundraising operations among members of Congress.
Nunes, R-Tulare, reported some of his best fundraising days immediately after a setback in one of the six lawsuits he’s pursuing alleging defamation by media organizations and others.
A Virginia judge ruled on June 24 that Nunes could not sue Twitter for negligence over tweets authored by two anonymous accounts that mock him and Republican political strategist Liz Mair.
In the three days after that ruling, Nunes raised $144,000 for his campaign — more than double what his opponent, Democrat Phil Arballo, raised over the same time period.
Arballo had raised $65,000 in those three days, using news headlines about the ruling to tell people he was the Democrat running against Nunes and pointing people to his fundraising sites.
What’s more — $50,000 per day is about average for what Nunes has raised so far in 2020. He took in $4.5 million in the second quarter of 2020, on top of the $3.9 million he raised in the first three months of the year.
He’s among the top five fundraisers among House candidates in the 2020 election cycle.
Republican Party leaders Reps. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Steve Scalise of Louisiana have raised more than Nunes, as has Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff — Nunes’ adversary on the House Intelligence Committee during the Trump administration — has raised slightly less than Nunes.
Most of Nunes’ donations are smaller amounts — $25, $10 or $50 — and many come from WinRed, a site developed by Republicans for the 2020 election cycle that filters smaller, grassroots donations into GOP campaigns.
Independent race trackers have consistently rated Nunes’ district as likely or safe Republican in 2020, meaning they see Arballo’s chances of unseating Nunes as unlikely.
And while Nunes is spending large amounts in marketing, printing, list acquisition and other typical campaign costs, he’s still sitting on $10.5 million in cash left on hand.
Arballo has raised about $1.5 million in 2020 and has about $450,000 in cash on hand.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
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