New York's Congressional Delegation Raises - and Spends - Money for 2022 Campaigns

Despite redistricting uncertainty, NY's Congressional representatives have been raising (and spending) campaign funds in advance of the 2022 mid-terms, with varying levels of success.  The census reduced NY from its current total of 27 congressional seats to 26.  Two incumbents - Republicans Lee Zeldin and Tom Reed - have announced they are not running for reelection leaving NY with 25 congressional incumbents who, at the moment, appear to be running for another term in 2022 and need money to fuel their campaigns.   

Below, I've listed each NY current representative by district number.  Using filings listed at www.fec.gov, I've tracked (1) the total amount raised by the candidate in 2021, which includes individual contributions, and money received from PACs and other political committees, including transfers from candidates' "victory funds";  (2) contributions from individual donors within the "2021 Raised" number to give a sense of how reliant candidates are on PAC and committee money in comparison to individuals; (3)  total money spent in 2021, (4) "cash on hand" in the campaign account as of December 31, 2020, (5) cash on hand as of September 20, 2021, and (6) "Raised Total" which adds to "2021 Riased" money raised by a candidate's "victory fund" that was not already transferred to the candidate's campaign account (which money, however, may not necessarily be available for direct campaign spending). 

[In addition to their regular campaign account, a number of New York representatives have Victory Funds (VF), which operate together with party committees, such as the DCCC (for Democrats).  The candidate may then transfer a portion of the VF revenue to their personal campaign account.  In 2021, this approach was used most actively by Hakeem Jeffries, who has transferred $546,431 (out of $1,314,845 raised) from his VF to his campaign and Elise Stefanik who has transferred $281,809 (from $566,279 raised) to her campaign.  Other representatives who have transferred more than $100,000 to their campaigns from VFs include Gregory Meeks, Ritchie Torres, and Sean Maloney.] 

                                   1.                   2                   3.                 4.                  5.                   6.     

CD	REP.	2021 Raised	(Individuals)	Spent 2021	COH 2020	COH 9/30/21	Raised Total
1	Zeldin	687,721	583,458	804,518	166,236	49,439	689,013
2	Garbarino	1,027,560	359,184	277,223	131,854	882,191	1,082,560
3	Suozzi	1,766,684	1,241,860	546,276	1,903,703	3,151,111	1,766,684
4	Rice	395,589	208,714	285,731	189,845	299,703	395,589
5	Meeks	955,857	342,785	534,143	779,722	1,201,436	1,267,422
6	Meng	560,680	296,147	201,777	395,520	754,423	560,680
7	Velazquez	193,529	139,029	177,287	310,382	326,624	193,529
8	Jeffries	2,224,039	1,060,857	1,580,870	2,145,322	2,788,491	2,992,453
9	Clarke	231,434	91,547	234,483	46,302	43,254	231,434
10	Nadler	492,152	375,652	298,948	508,339	701,543	597,152
11	Malliotakis	1,494,104	1,265,084	328,960	20,796	1,188,087	1,497,151
12	C. Maloney	1,363,674	842,517	564,011	108,629	916,079	1,363,674
13	Espaillat	494,065	399,315	165,584	113,577	430,931	494,065
14	AOC	6,413,480	6,297,086	4,920,979	4,297,383	5,789,884	6,413,480
15	Torres	1,939,060	1,688,291	274,942	389,690	2,053,808	2,055,293
16	Bowman	632,787	601,750	439,462	77,474	270,799	632,787
17	Jones	1,809,107	1,683,144	368,871	797,588	2,237,824	1,809,107
18	SP Maloney	1,688,828	1,266,866	865,858	860,002	1,682,971	2,366,453
19	Delgado	2,453,614	2,223,650	506,444	3,064,789	5,011,960	2,453,614
20	Tonko	585,495	251,930	345,595	811,660	1,051,560	585,495
21	Stefanik	3,501,641	2,998,687	2,854,307	1,983,540	2,630,875	3,786,111
22	Tenney	1,741,599	830,807	1,137,160	400,109	1,007,306	1,819,499
23	Reed	686,614	600,146	745,682	182,389	123,322	686,614
24	Katko	1,409,247	586,906	418,272	272,061	1,263,037	1,409,247
25	Morelle	356,856	179,809	214,230	160,175	302,801	366,856
26	Higgins	716,902	422,361	307,561	1,111,052	1,520,364	716,902
27	Jacobs	451,761	325,839	228,759	62,829	285,831	451,761
						37,965,654	38,684,625
NOTES:
Zeldin: Spending includes $380,000 transferred (7/11) to Zeldin campaign account for NY governor.
Jacobs:   $550,000 owed by campaign is entirely personal loans from Jacobs to his campaign.
Carolyn Maloney:  $200,000 is owed by campaign in personal loan from Maloney to campaign.
Retiring representatives are highlighted in yellow.  Source: www.fec.gov

Some numbers jump out. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the undisputed champion of NY congressional fundraising.  Her receipts more than double those of any other NY representative in 2021 with the exception of Republican rising star Elise Stefanik in a distant second place.  Other impressive fundraisers are Brooklyn powerbroker Hakeem Jeffries, Antonio Delgado, Sean Maloney and freshmen Ritchie Torres. Stefanik doubles the closest Republican, Claudia Tenney.   Fundraising laggards in 2021 are Nydia Valazquez (only $193K raised), Yvette Clark and Kathleen Rice. 

Just as noteworthy as AOC's amazing haul is the fact that more than 98% of her 2021 fundraising comes from individual donors.  Only Jamaal Bowman (95%), Mondaire Jones (93%) and Antonio Delgado (91%) come close to this rate of individual donations as a percentage of total money raised. In stark contrast, only 35% of Long Island Republican Andrew Garbarino's funds come from individuals. 

And again, AOC's individual donations total more than doubles that of all other NY representatives in 2021, including Elise Stefanik, again in second place.   NYC Democrat Yvette Clark is far behind the rest with only having collected only $91,547 from individuals so far in 2021. 

AOC has also spent the most money in 2021 by far ($2million more than Stefanik). Even after spending nearly $1.5million on merch for her online store, AOC still holds more than $5.7million in cash in her account as of Sept. 30. Predictably, Stefanik and Jeffries are big spenders, along with Claudia Tenney, although much of her spending was related to her recount effort arising from the razor thin margin in the 2020 elections. 

In the effort to accumulate war chests before the campaigns season starts, AOC is followed, perhaps surprisingly by Antonio Delgado who holds just over $5million.  Delgado will need the funds as his district is expected to take a new shape after redistricting, although possibly more favorable to a Democrat.  Tom Suozzi from Nassau County is a distant third in "cash on hand."  Suozzi may face a reelection battle as he will probably gain more Republicans in a redrawn district as state Democrats seek to gerrymander away at least one of the two Republican districts on Long Island.  Incumbents in financial difficulties as we approach the 2022 campaign season are Yvette Clark (with a sobering $43,254 in her account) and freshman Jamaal Bowman with just $270,799.  Bowman's district is expected to be shifted mostly into Westchester County which, combined with his lackluster financial position, should start ringing alarm bells at his campaign headquarters.  Other cash poor campaigns, include far west Republican Chris Jacobs, Democrat Joe Morelle in Rochester, and, again, Nydia Velazquez and Kathleen Rice. 

Below are third quarter fundraising and spending totals (without adding in non-transferred victory fund money).  

CD	REP.	3Q Raised	3Q Spent
1	Zeldin	49,846	403,592
2	Garbarino	416,197	95,065
3	Suozzi	1,049,776	163,418
4	Rice	73,439	96,459
5	Meeks	354,230	164,795
6	Meng	181,863	83,933
7	Velazquez	16,351	39,598
8	Jeffries	881,980	580,625
9	Clarke	105,780	104,616
10	Nadler	175,100	127,971
11	Malliotakis	553,071	165,542
12	C. Maloney	473,441	215,035
13	Espaillat	175,650	75,988
14	AOC	1,679,781	1,231,744
15	Torres	717,755	95,102
16	Bowman	175,340	140,324
17	Jones	559,289	132,203
18	SP Maloney	521,118	227,486
19	Delgado	665,189	111,312
20	Tonko	192,200	111,432
21	Stefanik	1,140,948	611,262
22	Tenney	410,398	175,457
23	Reed	3,605	39,047
24	Katko	488,743	143,569
25	Morelle	57,767	98,416
26	Higgins	227,624	154,169
27	Jacobs	187,712	92,088

Tom Suozzi won 3Q by netting $886,358.  Zeldin transferred $380K to his NY state campaign account for his run for governor.  AOC spent $423,612 on non-itemized payments to a credit card company named "Veyond!." What is going on with Valazquez - raising $16,351 (just $6,851 from individuals!) this quarter - while spending $40K?  A few other Dems -  Kathleen Rice, Joe Morelle - also spent more than they raised, whle Yvette Clark barely broke even, and Jamaal Bowman netted just $35K. Chris Jacobs was the laggard among the six still active Republicans, raising $95K more than he spent, while Stefanik was, again, the second highest earner (behind AOC) in the state. .  .