Democrats running in several high-profile political races in North Carolina are outraising Republican opponents, racking up significant fundraising leads from February to June, according to second-quarter campaign finance data.
In the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Democrat Mo Green raised more than 14 times what Republican Michele Morrow’s campaign brought in between Feb. 18 and June 30.
During that period, Green raised $667,000, dramatically outpacing Morrow, who pulled in $46,000 over the same period. He also entered July with 41 times more cash on hand with a $578,000 war chest to Morrow’s $14,000.
Morrow spent $55,013 during the same period, about $9,000 more than her campaign brought in between February and June, according to her second-quarter finance report filed on July 12.
In total, Green has raised nearly $1 million in his race for Superintendent of Public Education and spent $397,000 of that on the campaign. Morrow has brought in $91,000 so far and spent $33,000 of that.
Josh Stein, the Democratic Attorney General running for Governor against Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, filed his second-quarter finance report on July 10, the deadline for filing.
Stein began the reporting period with $12.7 million and headed into July with $15.9 million on hand, according to the most recent campaign finance report.
Receipts for the Stein campaign for the second quarter totaled $13.7 million, $12.9 million of which was from individual donors. Total expenditures for the reporting period were $10.5 million. Stein has spent just under $17.3 million so far in his bid to become Governor. Total receipts since launching his campaign came to just under $33 million, according to the July 10 report.
Robinson’s second-quarter filing had not been posted by the State Board of Election on Monday. When he last filed a campaign finance report on March 15, Robinson had $4.4 million in cash on hand.
In the race for North Carolina Lieutenant Governor, Democrat Rachel Hunt entered July with more than $1 million, about nine times the $114,000 that Republican Hal Weatherman had on hand at the end of June.
Hunt, daughter of former Gov. Jim Hunt, has brought in a total of $1.9 million as of June 30 and spent $914,451 of that. Total receipts for Weatherman were at $929,847 at the end of June. He has spent $815,992 so far on the race, according to his second-quarter finance report filed July 10.
In the closely watched race for North Carolina’s 112th state House district, Democratic challenger Nicole Sidman outraised incumbent Republican Tricia Cotham by four orders of magnitude.
Sidman brought in $264,489 in the second quarter of 2024 compared with Cotham’s $55,746. Sidman entered July with $230,899, almost twice as large a sum as Cotham’s $16,457, according to their respective campaign finance reports.
Cotham represented House District 100 from 2007 to 2017 as a Democrat, then was re-elected to House District 112 in 2022, also as a Democrat, before changing her party affiliation to Republican in 2023. The party swap gave Republicans supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature, allowing them to pass abortion restrictions and pass veto-proof legislation virtually without input from Democratic colleagues.
The Republican-dominated General Assembly last month passed a law unleashing outside political organizations to donate unlimited funding to state campaigns, which could benefit both parties but did not take effect in time for any impact to be reflected in second-quarter financial reports.
The new law, which earned a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper that was summarily overridden by the Legislature’s Republican majority says “it shall be permissible for a federal political committee, as defined by committee organized pursuant to the Federal Election Campaign Act and its regulations adopted pursuant thereto, to make contributions to a North Carolina candidate or political committee.” It also eliminates limits on those contributions.
