The latest campaign finance reports are in, and incumbent Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, has once again dramatically outraised her opponents.
The congresswoman took in nearly $1.2 million in the last fiscal quarter, covering April 1 to June 30. Her opponent for the Republican nomination, Jill A. Lochner, took in $2,702 in total last quarter, and Steven W. Holden Sr., a Democrat who ran against Congresswoman Claudia L. Tenney in 2022 but recently declared his candidacy for the 21st Congressional District, has failed to file any financial disclosures for this election cycle.
According to reports filed on July 15, Stefanik has taken in $416,561 from individuals, $156,150 from political action committees and $612,658 in transfers from her other campaign committees and the GOP Battleground fund.
BUSINESS SUPPORT
The PAC contributions largely come from large corporate committees, including $1,000 in the last quarter from the employees’ PAC for defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which has donated $5,000 to Stefanik this cycle and many more thousands over her congressional career.
Other corporate donors to the congresswoman’s campaign include AT&T, Amazon, Raytheon, the Dairy Farmers of America, a number of groups representing doctors and pharmacists, American Express and Wells Fargo. Most have contributed between $2,500 and $5,000 since the start of the election cycle in January, with some like defense contractor L3 Technologies contributing the pre-primary maximum of $7,500.
Since the start of the election cycle, Stefanik’s campaign fund has taken in $2.5 million, with about $1.12 million coming from other campaign committees including other funds she maintains, like the Elise Victory Fund.
For expenses, the congresswoman’s campaign has spent $582,109 in the last three months, and $1.82 million since January, on campaign-related items ranging from cellphone bills and travel costs to marketing, consulting and staff.
Her campaign started April with $1.3 million in available cash and ended June with $1.8 million.
LOCHNER FUNDS
The congresswoman’s opponent for the Republican nomination, Saratoga County native Lochner, has taken in a fraction of Stefanik’s election-cycle total. Since announcing her candidacy in May, her campaign has taken in $4,641, with many contributions made by the candidate herself.
She’s also provided a $5,000 loan to her campaign, with a due date of July 17, 2024, and an interest rate of 0.0720, equating to roughly $3 to $5 in interest.
She took in $2,702 in contributions in the last three months.
She’s spent a large portion of that money, $3,489, in operating expenses in the last three months and $4,334 since she started her run. Much of those expenses are travel reimbursements paid to herself, as well as marketing materials like shirts, hats and business cards.
Lochner started April with $6,094 in cash on hand and ended June with $5,307 in available cash.
HOLDEN FUNDS
Holden, the Democratic candidate from Camillus, Onondaga County, has not filed any campaign finance reports this year. He filed an organization statement with the Federal Election Commission to run for NY-21 on July 7, after initially filing to run in NY-24 against Tenney on June 6. He received a notice on May 3 that he was out of compliance with federal election laws, as he has not filed any financial disclosures since November 2022.
His listed campaign website connects to a woodworking blog rather than a campaign page.
Holden said he is working on bringing on a new campaign treasurer and is planning to share his first campaign finance filing in three months when the next quarterly report is due.
These are the second slate of reports filed for the current election cycle, which will see pre-primary activity for another 11 months until the June primaries, and then six months of general election activity until November. More candidates could potentially announce their campaigns before then, and current candidates could drop out in the coming months.