Jaime Harrison Sets Congressional Fundraising Record With $57 Million Haul
Jaime Harrison, the Democratic nominee in South Carolina who is challenging GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, raised $57 million in the third quarter this year – a record amount over that period of time for a Senate race, Harrison’s campaign announced on Sunday (Oct. 11).
He smashed the previous three-month haul of $38 million by Democrat Beto O’Rourke in the third quarter of 2018, in his race against incumbent Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“This campaign is making history because we’re focused on restoring hope back to South Carolina. After 25 years in Washington, Lindsey Graham has changed into someone voters no longer recognize, and these resources will be instrumental in our efforts to send Lindsey home in November,” said Harrison campaign spokesman Guy King, according to The Post and Courier.
Graham, who has evolved into an unwavering Donald Trump supporter in the Senate, has not announced his third quarter fundraising total. He has unabashedly appeared on Fox News to beg conservatives to fund his campaign.
“I’m getting overwhelmed. Help me,” he pleaded on air. “They’re killing me, money-wise. Help me. You helped me last week — help me again.”
The New York Times reported that money has poured into the coffers of Democratic challengers in Senate races. There was a huge bump in donations following the Sept. 18 death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Graham serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is making every effort to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat with Trump’s nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
It’s a shameless about-face from 2016. Graham supported GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s controversial decision four years ago to block confirmation hearings of President Barack Obama’s pick, Judge Merrick Garland, to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia prior to the presidential election.
Back then, the Republicans argued that the newly-elected president should nominate a Supreme Court justice in the weeks before a presidential election.
