Pennsylvania's Democratic lieutenant governor outraises everyone in crucial Senate race

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman vastly outraised his fellow Democratic candidates in the race for an open U.S. Senate seat last quarter — and it turns out he far outraised the Republican hopefuls too.

Fetterman, who was elected to his current post in 2018 after serving as mayor of Braddock for 13 years, reported to the Federal Election Commission on Thursday that he raised approximately $2,547,551 between April 1 and June 30. That brought his total raised so far to nearly $6.6 million.

Fetterman has more than $3 million currently in the bank for his 2022 campaign.

Each of those totals are more than double his next closest Democratic primary opponent, Montgomery County Commission Chair Val Arkoosh. Arkoosh’s second-quarter filings show that she raised approximately $1,034,551 since joining the race in early April and had just over $632,000 in cash on hand.

Fetterman has also raised more than twice what any Republican candidate has. Jeff Bartos, a wealthy real estate developer and the unsuccessful 2018 lieutenant gubernatorial nominee on the GOP ticket against Fetterman, reported $1,007,583 raised in the second quarter and $2,199,919 raised to date — with about $1.84 million in cash on hand.

Other candidates on both sides raised even less: Failed 2020 GOP House candidate Kathy Barnette raised $595,309, defeated 2020 GOP House candidate Sean Parnell raised $560,986, and Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta raised $502,628.

A handful of additional candidates have also filed to run, but none have reported raising more than $400,000 total so far.

Republican Carla Sands, a chiropractor and former ambassador to Denmark under President Donald Trump, joined the race on July 2 but did not report raising any money as of June 30.

The seat, which formerly belonged to two-term Sen. Pat Toomey (R), who announced last October that he would not seek re-election in November 2022, represents a prime pickup opportunity for Senate Democrats.

Pennsylvania is a swing state, where Democrats have been successful in recent years. After narrowly winning the state — and its 20 electoral votes — in the 2016 presidential race, Trump lost it to President Joe Biden in 2020.

In the 2018 midterms, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey won reelection over then-Rep. Lou Barletta (R) by more than 13 points. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Fetterman beat then-state Sen. Scott Wagner (R) and Bartos by an even larger margin, 57.8% to 40.7%, that same year.

With the Senate narrowly controlled by Democrats at present, with 50 seats and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking any ties, the open Pennsylvania Senate seat could determine who has a majority in the next Congress.

The Cook Political Report rates the race a “toss up.” CNN rated it as the #1 seat most likely to switch parties in 2022.

With the filing deadline still months away, other candidates could still jump into the race.

Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb has said he is considering a run; according to his latest filings he raised $977,980 in the second quarter of 2021 and $1,496,703 total so far this year. He currently has almost $1.8 million on hand in his House campaign account — money he could use for a Senate run.