Recently released reports from the Federal Elections Commission show that Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-Utica) raised three times as much as former Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford) in the last three months of 2019.
Brindisi brought in $909,992.95 last quarter, leaving him with $1.85 million on hand going into what will likely be an expensive and hard fought reelection campaign.
“I think it shows that we have a lot of folks out there, individual contributors who are proud of the effort that we are putting forth,” Brindisi said in an interview Saturday.
Tenney, who lost the seat in a close race to Brindisi in 2018 lagged behind in her first quarter of fundraising since declaring her bid in October. She raised $300,389.44, leaving her with $286,565.61 on hand.
Tenney out-raised her two GOP primary challengers, George Phillips and Franklin Sager. Phillips only raised $27,236.61, ending 2019 with $57,132.23 on hand. However, 24.4% of those contributions were from individuals giving less than $200, a larger percentage than any other candidate. Only 7.2% of contributions to Brindisi and 10.9% to Tenney were less than $200.
“I am so grateful for the outpouring of support for our campaign to hold Anthony Brindisi accountable in November and bring a fighter for Upstate New York back to Congress,” Tenney said in a press release last week. She couldn’t be reached for an interview.
Sager only reported raising $317.64, which he loaned to himself. He ended the year without any cash on hand.
Broome County District Attorney Steve Cornwell officially dropped out of the race on Friday, choosing instead to run for Broome County Family Court Judge.