Black Candidates 💵 Top Fundraisers for the #Virginia House
With 288 days to Election Day and many primary battles to be be won and lost in June — let’s take a look at the money race. For many candidates for the House of Delegates fundraising began last summer. With each election cycle that passes, the amounts of money get higher and higher, even for House of Delegates races. Maybe it’s because more people are interesting in running or maybe it’s because fundraising technology keeps getting better and more targeted.
Black candidates: 🏃🏾♂️ Take a look at the top fundraisers for the House of Delegates so far:
Last week VPAP posted the latest fundraising data on the 2023 races. Among candidates for the Virginia House, the top donor is Republican David Owen (HD57).
Virginia SENATE 🏃🏾♂️ candidates 2023 ||| Virginia HOUSE 🏃🏾♂️ candidates 2023
The top eight Black candidates in fundraising for the House of Delegates are Rae Cousins (HD79), Terrence Walker (HD81), Joshua Cole (HD65), Leonard Lacey (HD64), Alex Askew (HD95), Victor McKenzie (HD82), Debra Gardner (HD76) and Michael Feggans (HD97) and Mike Jones HD77 who are tied at $35,000.
With no caps on donations in Virginia candidates can be funded by one millionaire anyplace in the U.S. as long as the donations are publicly disclosed. For Black candidates, raising money has in the past been a barrier to entry but is quickly becoming a thing of the past and the notion that Black candidates can’t raise money is dying.
House Minority Leader Don Scott raised over $200,000 as he became the Leader of the Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Maryland just elected their first Black Governor in Wes Moore, who out raised Republican Dan Cox 10-1, with over $16 million raised in total. Across the country over the last few cycles, Black candidates (ie: Jamie Harrison running in a red state) have had very high fundraising totals.
The Black candidate that is the top fundraiser so far is Rae Cousins in HD79. Cousins has received $80,000 from Clean Virginia Fund and $25,000 from Sonjia Smith. Terrence Walker’s biggest donor is also Michael Bills/Clean Virginia Fund $30,000, and Sonjia Smith $15,010. As usual, Bills/Smith are donating to many Democratic candidates this cycle and remain top donors on the left in Virginia.
In third place is Joshua Cole (HD65). Cole barely lost in 2021 in HD28 to Del. Tara Durant by only 647 votes as Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin. The Youngkin wave and his focus on campaigning in rural Virginia by bus led to Democrats losing the majority House of Delegates. Durant is now running for a seat in the Virginia Senate.
One thing we see in these numbers is a persistent problem Black candidates often have: An inability to self fund. Self funders, or candidates who added a substantial amount of their own money to their campaigns, are often successful on the statewide level in Virginia. Examples include Mark Warner and Glenn Youngkin. More soon.
👊🏽 SUBSCRIBE. We exist to inform and tell stories mainstream media never will. Send your press releases, submissions, tips, pitches, comments and corrections to BlackVirginiaNews@gmail.com.