Desiree Tims outraises longtime GOP Rep. Michael Turner by more than $300K in second quarter

Democratic House candidate Desiree Tims outraised longtime Rep. Michael Turner’s (R-Ohio) campaign by more than $300,000 in the second quarter of the year.

Figures provided by Tims’s campaign shows that the first-time candidate raised roughly $382,700 from April through June. The number is a far jump from the $91,140 her campaign raised in the first quarter of the year and roughly five times the nearly $76,200 Turner raised in the second quarter.

In a statement to The Hill on Wednesday, Tims called the support her campaign received this quarter “a testament to Ohioans’ desire for real and authentic leadership.”

“Mike Turner’s brand of partisan politics puts his party over the people of Ohio’s 10th district. And it is time for that to change,” she said. “Our numbers show that we are ready to flip this seat.”

The Hill has reached out to Turner’s office for comment.

The gains by Tims’s campaign come as the congressional candidate was recently added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) “Red to Blue” list, a program the committee says provides candidates already running “strong campaigns” with organizational and fundraising support to flip Republican-held districts.

Tims, a 32-year-old local activist from Dayton, studied at Xavier University and Georgetown University Law and previously interned at the White House under former President Obama. She also served as an aide for Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in the nation’s capital.

If elected, Tims would be the first woman and African American to hold the congressional seat, her campaign has confirmed. 

Turner, 60, is currently serving his ninth term in the House. He easily won reelection in 2018 with 56 percent of the vote.