FEC Roundup #1

Welcome to the first FEC roundup! As a piece of content released in the first month of the relaunch, this one will be free—but after this one, FEC roundups will only be available to subscribers at the $8/month or $80/year tier. Long FEC roundups like this one will come out every quarter as reports are due for all candidates; shorter ones will also come out irregularly, following the schedule of primaries, as candidates must submit pre-election reports 12 days before each primary and general election they participate in. (For example, Illinois pre-primary reports will be due in early March 2026, covering the period beginning January 1—the start of Q1 2026—and ending 20 days before Illinois's mid-March primaries.)

All data in the following table is pulled from the reports which were due to the Federal Election Commission at the end of the first quarter of 2025. Candidates who are discussed but not listed on the table announced campaigns after the filing deadline.

IL-Sen

In any other race, Rep. Robin Kelly’s $2 million cash stockpile from her past House campaigns would be a meaningful advantage. But Kelly faces Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who is likely to be bankrolled by billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who has just shy of $20 million saved up from his own House campaigns for this Senate campaign. Illinois is an expensive state to campaign in, and Kelly will need to pick up her fundraising pace if she wants to stay competitive—but having $2 million already in the bank should allow her to staff up and hire a skilled fundraising team. Whether or not she does that will only be apparent in future FEC reports, though.

MA-Sen

Ed Markey isn’t fundraising like mad, but he’s also not fundraising like you’d expect him to announce a retirement anytime soon—which feels a bit like we’re in the danger zone where Rep. Jake Auchincloss could barrel in with his overstuffed campaign bank account and bury Markey in an avalanche of money. And if Markey does bow out, progressives’ likely draft pick Ayanna Pressley is not exactly fundraising like she has her eye on the Senate.

MI-Sen

Rep. Haley Stevens, an AIPAC favorite, is also, unfortunately, a very strong fundraiser. There’s reason to believe that both Abdul El-Sayed (Bernie Sanders-endorsed) and Mallory McMorrow (of viral DNC fame) will be able to compete, but they do start out at a financial disadvantage, and we won’t know more until the next filing deadline in July.

MN-Sen

Angie Craig had a full quarter to fundraise, while Peggy Flanagan had just days—but Craig is clearly going to have a financial advantage, at least to start. Her cash on hand is low enough that Flanagan could overtake her with a couple of particularly good quarters, perhaps fueled by national progressive attention.

AZ-07

Former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez is well-liked by both AIPAC and the Arizona business lobby, which translated into more than $300,000 raised in less than two weeks. Two more candidates announced after the filing deadline: Adelita Grijalva may be able to rely on her family name to help her win her father’s Tucson-based seat, but Deja Foxx will need to leverage her social media following and connections on the Harris campaign to avoid getting drowned out by the two more established local politicians.

CA-11

AOC’s former chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti raised a decent $70,000—and self-funded more than $200,000. To say Nancy Pelosi is a formidable opponent is an understatement, but Chakrabarti is certainly trying to pose a credible threat to her reelection—whether or not such a thing is possible is for the voters of San Francisco to decide.

CA-32

Los Angeles Rep. Brad Sherman won’t be an easy out for his former staffer Jake Rakov, with nearly $4 million just waiting to be spent on what might be Sherman’s toughest primary since his brutal 2012 redistricting-induced matchup with fellow Rep. Howard Berman.

FL-20

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s fundraising has fallen off, and her ability to self-fund as she has in the past is increasingly called into question by a brewing ethics scandal around her campaign and personal finances. Gen Z activist Elijah Manley raised a shocking quarter-million-plus at exactly the wrong time for the South Florida congresswoman, whose district snakes through the Black neighborhoods of Broward and Palm Beach counties.

GA-13

Rep. David Scott is obviously vulnerable in a primary in his Atlanta-area district—his past lackluster performances are evidence enough—but it doesn’t look like state Sen. Emanuel Jones will be much of a threat to Scott on his current trajectory, raising just $1,636 and self-funding $15,500. Maybe former Gwinnett Board of Education Chair Everton Blair can make more of an impact.

IL-07

With most representatives, a fundraising quarter this poor would set off alarm bells as a clear sign of an impending retirement. With Chicago Rep. Danny Davis, who knows—the octogenarian congressman is consistently one of the House’s worst fundraisers.

IL-09

Kat Abughazaleh no longer has the field to herself with the candidacies of state Sen. Laura Fine and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, but the journalist and influencer raised an incredible $378,596 in just a week. Money isn’t everything and Abughazaleh could easily fizzle out—but that’s a lot of money for one week.

IN-07

Rep. André Carson is not particularly insulated against a primary challenge—or, at least, his bank account isn’t, with less than $500,000 stored up. Political consultant George Hornedo still has to prove his own fundraising capabilities, however.

MA-08

Boston Rep. Stephen Lynch’s fundraising isn’t great for a long-tenured congressman, but he has a million bucks saved up from past campaigns, so attorney Patrick Roath will need to put in some work to compete financially.

MI-13

Lord almighty, Detroit Rep. Shri Thanedar has self-funded an awful lot over the years (and, apparently, made good money on the market, his steep losses this quarter notwithstanding.) Adam Hollier has some leftover cash from his previous campaigns, but I have my eye on Justice Democrats-backed state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who also seems to have more local support at this early stage.

TX-18

All three announced candidates have decent sums of money to work with, though most of Isaiah Martin’s haul was carryover from his previous campaign and he has meaningfully less money than the other two candidates. Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee’s $24,000 advantage over former Houston City Councilor Amanda Edwards could be wiped out with a single high-dollar fundraiser or a particularly good day on ActBlue.