TAMPA, Fla — Campaign fundraising and spending have ballooned over the past decade and to find the next big money race, look no further than Florida.
Congresswoman Val Demings took the stage in Orlando Tuesday night, delivering a victory speech after being declared the winner of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Her race was the earliest-called statewide, after she took home nearly 85% of the vote against three other candidates.
Her victory set up a head-to-head matchup with incumbent GOP Sen. Marco Rubio in November, and it's already garnering national attention.
While Democrats are trying to hold their very slim majority in the Senate (Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote), Republicans are looking to flip the balance of power in the midterms and at the same time make sure they don’t lose any seats.
But Demings’ fundraising numbers ahead of the primary have been huge—as of August 3 she had raised a whopping $47 million to Rubio’s $36 million.
"Usually a challenger does not outraise an incumbent in any of the cycles of raising money," 10 Tampa Bay Political Analyst Dr. Lars Hafner says. "But because Florida has a trickle-down effect as far as the governor is concerned as well. [Democrats] feel like there is a chance to play on this field."
Demings’ ads have been aired on TV for several weeks. Her campaign has outspent Rubio’s nearly 2:1, but Rubio has more cash on hand, according to data from OpenSecrets.
This week, Rubio’s campaign put in a $1.3 million TV-ad buy across the state. Nearly half of that being spent in the Tampa market. Rubio campaigned in Orlando and Tampa alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis a day after the primary.
“If candidates are to get their messages out, they've got to do it through TV mostly and to work hard at raising the money in order to pay for the advertising,” Hafner explained.
Right now, it’s the third-most funded Senate race in the nation, only trailing Pennsylvania and Georgia. Expect that gap to close as the candidates inch closer to November 8.
“As Florida goes, sometimes the nation goes, as Pinellas County goes from the Tampa Bay community, so goes the nation. So there's a lot of interest in Florida,” Hafner added.