NJ-07, NJ-12: Bennett (D), Hamawy (D) pull further away in fundraising, per pre-primary reports
The last FEC reports before New Jersey’s June 2 primary election were due last night, and among other things, they show two leading Democratic candidates in competitive House primaries pulling further away from the pack.
In the 7th district, Rebecca Bennett reported raising $288,135 in the pre-primary period, which covered the span between April 1 and May 13. That’s almost as much as her three Democratic foes raised combined: Tina Shah raised $168,114, Brian Varela raised $99,756 (around half of which was self-funded), and Michael Roth raised $65,865.
Since launching her campaign, Bennett has raised a total of $2.9 million, an unprecedented sum at this point in the cycle for a New Jersey House challenger. Shah has raised $2.1 million, Varela has raised $2 million, and Roth has raised $1.2 million, though all of their totals have included substantial amounts of self-funding.
The pre-primary report, though, was when they started spending heavily on reaching out to voters: Bennett spent $950,462, Shah spent $937,066, Varela spent $1,074,103, and Roth spent $106,749. (And that’s not accounting for the large amounts of money spent by outside groups in the district, most of them either supporting or opposing Bennett.)
https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/bennett-hamawy-pull-further-away-in-fundraising-per-pre-primary-reports/