Lake trails Gallego in first-quarter fundraising

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake’s campaign significantly stepped up her fundraising during the first quarter of 2024, but she trailed her likely Democratic opponent by a notable amount. 

Lake’s campaign said in a release on Monday that her campaign and joint fundraising committee raised $4.1 million during the first quarter, the first three months of the year. Her campaign finished the quarter with $2.5 million cash on hand. 

That is a step up from the final quarter of 2023, when her campaign brought in $2.1 million and had $1.1 million in the bank. Lake has largely consolidated Republican support behind her campaign with endorsements from former President Trump, many Senate Republicans and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 

Axios was the first to report Lake’s totals. 

But Lake is still behind Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who will likely be the Democratic nominee, after the five-term congressman raised $7.5 million for his campaign in the first quarter. His campaign reported $9.6 million cash on hand. 

Still, Lake’s campaign signaled optimism about gaining momentum with the uptick in fundraising this quarter. 

“Kari Lake doubled her fundraising haul from last quarter. She is seeing strong [support] from grassroots donors and Arizona donors. Gallego is Far-Left, and out of step with Arizonans. Just like President Trump, Kari is preforming strong in Arizona and will win in November,” the campaign said in a statement. 

The release states that the campaign received about 40,000 donations from almost 22,000 donors, and 99 percent of the donations were less than $200. It also said that 56 percent of Lake’s donors were first-time contributors to any Lake entity. 

The release noted that Lake’s fundraising total this past quarter is the second highest for any nonincumbent Republican Senate candidate. 

The race between Lake and Gallego is likely to be one the most hotly contested in the country this year and will likely help determine which party will control the Senate next year. Incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I) has chosen not to run for reelection. 

Polls have shown a close contest between the two candidates. Gallego leads Lake by 4 points in The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling average of the race. 

Gallego led by 4 points in an Emerson College poll from last month, while Lake was ahead by 3 points in a Rasmussen Reports poll from February.