Karamo trails Benson in fundraising, latest campaign finance filings show

Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has a serious cash advantage over her GOP rival Kristina Karamo with fewer than 90 days to go until the Nov. 8 election that will decide who will serve as the state's next chief elections official.

The latest campaign finance filings provide the first glimpse into the size of the campaign war chests between the two opponents since last year.

Karamo, the presumptive Republican nominee for secretary of state, has raised $467,373.56 so far this year and has $277,250.86 cash on hand, according to her most recent campaign finance report covering the period from Jan. 1 to Aug. 11.

Meanwhile, Benson has raised over $2.1 million so far this year and has more than $3.2 million cash on hand, according to her campaign's latest filing covering Jan. 1 to Aug. 5.

The gap revealed in the latest campaign finance filings marks the continuation of a similar disparity in previous reports. Karamo had $133,054 cash on hand at the end of last year compared with Benson's more than $1.4 million, according to campaign finance filings covering the period from Oct. 21 to Dec. 31, 2021.

Benson was elected secretary of state in 2018 with nearly 53% of the vote and has cast her bid for reelection as a battle over the future of democracy.

Karamo received former President Donald Trump's endorsement and easily secured her party's support to become the presumptive nominee for secretary of state, winning nearly 70% of the votes cast by GOP delegates at the party's inaugural endorsement convention in April.

Karamo is part of a coalition of "America First" Republican candidates for their state's respective secretary  of state position  who have leveled baseless claims that the 2020 election was rife with fraud. She was also among a group of Republicans who tried to intervene as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by Texas' attorney general asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Michigan's election results along with those from other battleground states. The court rejected that effort.

A spokesperson for Benson's reelection campaign called the support for the incumbent secretary of state's reelection bid "tremendous."

"Michiganders want a secretary of state who is focused on the job like Benson is," said Liz Boyd. "What they don't want is someone like Karamo who peddles conspiracy theories and calls her fellow Republicans 'traitors' for not agreeing with her about the Big Lie."

More: Michigan secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo: I'm a little MAGA warrior

More: Michigan Republican secretary of state pick leveled baseless claims of election misconduct

Republicans have repeatedly blasted Benson's handling of the 2020 presidential election, including her decision to mail out absentee ballot applications to every registered voter in the state. Benson has defended the move as facilitating absentee voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the first major statewide elections held after voters approved a constitutional right to vote absentee for any reason.

In her bid for reelection, Benson's biggest contributions documented in her latest campaign finance report came from the Michigan Democratic Party, which gave $100,000, and  the SEIU Michigan State Council, which gave $71,500 in late July.

More than 60 contributors have given the maximum individual contribution of $7,150, including filmmaker Steven Spielberg in Hollywood and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw-Spielberg, as well as Vail Resorts executive board chairman Robert Katz.

Karamo did not receive similarly large contributions from groups, but several individuals maxed out their contributions to her campaign, including Michigan GOP Chairman Ron Weiser, according to her campaign's report.

Both Benson and Karamo have already received the endorsement of their respective political parties. The Michigan Democratic Convention will hold its convention to formally nominate Benson on Sunday while the Michigan Republican Party will hold its nominating convention Aug. 27.

Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kristina Karamo trails Jocelyn Benson in campaign funding