3 big Senate fundraising takeaways: From the Politics Desk

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In today’s edition, we break down the toplines from a fresh batch of campaign finance filings. Plus, Jonathan Allen previews President Donald Trump’s speech tonight from the White House.

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3 takeaways from the latest Senate fundraising reports

By Bridget Bowman and Joe Murphy

Campaign fundraising reports filed yesterday are shedding new light on the battle for the Senate, as Democrats look to net four seats to take control of the chamber.

All but one Republican in a key Senate race was outraised by their opponents in the most recent quarter. Major Democratic candidates across the 11 most competitive races raked in a total of $104 million to Republicans’ $35 million, and ended the quarter with $129 million to spend to Republicans’ $61 million. But a recent Supreme Court ruling could undercut some Democrats’ advantages .

Here are three takeaways from the latest reports.

1. Democrats are racking up a huge financial edge in critical contests. In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff ended the most recent quarter on June 30 with a whopping $43 million in his campaign account. His GOP opponent, Rep. Mike Collins , had $2 million after winning a lengthy primary.

The gap was also massive in North Carolina and Texas, where Democrats Roy Cooper and James Talarico had more than $20 million banked away, and Republicans Michael Whatley and Ken Paxton had $3.5 million and $1.7 million respectively. Former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown also had nearly twice as much money to spend as GOP Sen. Jon Husted , banking $16.2 million to Husted’s $9.4 million.

2. Still, other Republicans are banking more cash. Despite being outraised, some Republican Senate candidates ended the quarter with more cash to spend, including Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan , Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson , and former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers . Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts also outraised and had more cash on hand than independent candidate Dan Osborn . Maine Sen. Susan Collins also ended the quarter with $11 million left to spend, as Democrats scramble to pick a new nominee to replace Graham Platner .

3. Red-state Democrats rake in more money. While all eyes will be on battleground races, even Democrats in traditionally Republican states posted strong fundraising numbers. Three of those Democrats outraised their GOP opponents this quarter — Alexander Vindman in Florida, Adam Hamilton in Kansas and Scott Colom in Mississippi. Democrat Annie Andrews also raised $4.3 million in South Carolina, as she waits to see who will she face in November after GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham ’s death. Independent Seth Bodnar also outraised Republican Kurt Alme in Montana.

💰 Related read: Sen. Ed Markey and other incumbents get outraised by challengers ahead of tough primaries

Trump set to revive his long-running election crusade

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

Politicians are pros at using a new angle to press an old agenda, and President Donald Trump is no exception.

Tonight, from the White House, the president will deliver an address on a topic that has been a personal obsession for as long as he has been in the political arena: election security.

Trump has claimed that Democrats fix elections — even some of the races Republicans win — since at least August of 2016.

Back then, Trump said at a rally that he was “afraid the election is going to be rigged.” Later, after he won, he argued without evidence that he would have taken the popular vote — which he lost by about 3 million votes — “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Of course, he has also repeatedly asserted that he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election, despite a lack of evidence of widespread irregularities. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to prevent the Electoral College results from being certified anyway.

Trump won back the White House in 2024, but that hasn’t stopped him from questioning the integrity of elections at the federal and state level .

Since retaking office, he has pushed for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act , which would require new proof-of-citizenship and voter-ID requirements. Though there are rare verified cases of voter fraud in modern times, election officials and courts have consistently found that it simply doesn’t happen very often — and certainly not on a large scale.

Trump is expected to rehash his election-rigging narrative tonight, and he may make brand new claims to support his push to put a tighter rein on voting.

“We should have the safest and most secure elections in the history of the world,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing this afternoon. “What the president will be speaking about tonight will show you that perhaps that is not the case, and we need to make some adjustments moving forward, including the SAVE America Act.”

Even his spokeswoman qualified the claim with the word “perhaps.”

The SAVE America Act has stalled in Congress because Democrats and some Republicans oppose the new burdens it would place on current voters.

There are many ways in which Trump is an unconventional politician, but trying to score a long-standing goal with a new angle is not one of them.

For subscribers: More and more, Trump is talking about his mortality

By Monica Alba and Eleanor Skelly

At 78 years old, President Donald Trump became the oldest president ever to be inaugurated, and he turned 80 last month. After a gunman targeted him at a campaign rally two summers ago, he started to openly reflect on his own mortality, an apparent recognition that he could be assassinated while in office.

It’s a topic he’s brought up more and more throughout his second term. And he’s said he’s started studying assassinations like Abraham Lincoln ’s.

🗞️ Today's other top stories

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Annelise Hanson.

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