A potential November opponent for U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is trumpeting her fundraising numbers.
Former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell announced raising $4.8 million in the second quarter from 123,000 donations. Her campaign describes the haul as having "an average donation of just $39, and with nearly 60% coming from first-time grassroots donors joining the fight to hold Rick Scott accountable for voting against protections for IVF and contraception while backing Florida's abortion ban with no real exceptions for rape or incest."
"While Rick Scott pushes his extreme agenda of banning abortion with no real exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother and stealing seniors' hard-earned benefits, Florida voters are doubling down on replacing him with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell," said Riya Vashi, campaign spokeswoman for Debbie for Florida.
"This quarter's unprecedented show of momentum is proof that Floridians are all-in on the fight to protect their fundamental freedoms and to finally send a leader like Debbie to the Senate who will fight to lower costs for working families."
Mucarsel-Powell still has a Primary to clear before we know whether Democrats are "doubling down" on her campaign, of course, with Stanley Campbell being the only other candidate that's gotten any traction. But the press release suggests her campaign sees their second-quarter haul as a sign of momentum.
We still await Q2 numbers from the incumbent Senator, meanwhile.
Scott closed the first quarter with more than $3.78 million in cash on hand, a relatively modest number not reflective of his campaign's ultimate spending capacity. Of that money, the campaign raised more than $1.1 million since the beginning of the year, spending just over $1.56 million. Other authorized committees poured in close to $1.07 million.
Of course, the formal fundraising report tells only part of the story. He raised a total of $2.5 million between his campaign and three other committees in Q1, along with $140,000 for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A PAC backing Scott also raised $1.4 million.
Meanwhile, Scott also has the ability to self-fund, in contrast to Mucarsel-Powell, who brags she has "not a dime of self-funding."
As Roll Call noted in 2018, Scott put $63.6 million into his successful race against former Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. He poured more than $75 million into his 2010 race for Governor, where he ran as an outsider candidate who toppled a Republican backed by many establishment elements of the party.
Polling of a potential race between Mucarsel-Powell and Scott has been all over the place.
In a survey released by Florida Atlantic University, she's just 2 points back among likely voters, 45% to 43%.
That June poll presented a marked contrast to a previous poll by the same outfit that showed a 16-point race, and with a Florida Chamber of Commerce poll that showed a 15-point gap earlier this Summer.
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