Update: these campaign spending figures represent data available as of Oct. 28, 2024, the Federal Election Commission’s fall quarterly reporting deadline. MinnPost will update these spending figures and analysis with upcoming FEC reporting deadlines.
Campaign Fundraising and Spending
Minnesotan congressional campaigns have raised over $58 million dollars for the 2024 election, with Democrats out-raising Republicans nearly 2 to 1 ($37 million and $21 million, respectively). Democratic candidate fundraising leads that of Republicans in this year’s Senate race and the state’s 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts. Republicans have out-raised Democrats in the 1st, 6th, 7th and 8th districts.
Incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar has raised $15.4 million, the most of any Democratic congressional candidate in the state. Tom Emmer, the incumbent in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District race, has raised more than any other Republican with $8.7 million.
In each Minnesota congressional race this year, the incumbents had more than doubled the fundraising figures of their challengers. In each race other than the 8th District House race and the Senate race, the incumbents also spent more than twice the amount spent by their opponents.
Independent Expenditures
Political action committees supporting Minnesota's Democrats in Congress have spent eight times what groups have spent so far on both Republican challengers and Minnesota's GOP members of Congress.
The independent expenditures — money spent supporting or opposing a candidate by committees other than that of the campaign itself — go toward media ads, mailing campaigns and other forms of outreach. For the eight U.S. House seats and one U.S. Senate seat on the ballot in Minnesota this year, PACs have spent $1.6 million on Minnesota Democrats and $200,000 on Republicans.
And over 60% of the spending on Democrats has gone to support Rep. Angie Craig's reelection campaign in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District. In contrast, Craig's GOP challenger Joe Teirab has attracted just over $22,000 in PAC spending. Of the $1 million spent on Craig, 90% of it came from FairShake, a political action committee supporting the cryptocurrency industry.
The PAC, operating out of Florida since 2021, has spent over $36 million during the 2024 election cycle on both Republican and Democratic candidates across the country, according to political research firm OpenSecrets. While most of this spending has been in support of ostensibly pro-crypto candidates, the PAC has also spent $13.6 million opposing the campaigns of Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, and Katie Porter of California — three Democrats who lost their primary races earlier this year.
The second largest focus of campaign spending by PACs in Minnesota congressional races is in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, where Rep. Ilhan Omar is seeking reelection. PACs have spent over $546,000 supporting Omar, while Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi has received just over $51,000 supporting her campaign, all of it in the form of independent expenditures opposing Ilhan Omar.
2024-10-24 Update: FEC filings of expenditures made in October show a slight bump in spending for a handful of Minnesotan congressional candidates. The largest October expenditure was $75k supporting of the Craig campaign, $43k of which having come from the LGBT rights committee Equality PAC.
