North Dakota Republican candidates for federal office have cash advantage ahead of election

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, speaks to delegates during his nomination speech at the NDGOP Convention at the Sanford Health Athletic Complex in Fargo on April 6, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Republican candidates for federal office in North Dakota hold cash-on-hand advantages over Democratic-NPL challengers with 104 days to go before Election Day.

All North Dakota candidates for federal office filed their quarterly financial reports with the Federal Election Commission by the July 15 deadline. 

North Dakota’s Republican U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer raised more than $4.4 million since January 2023, which included large donations totalling more than $460,000 from the Cornyn Victory Committee and more than $315,000 from WinRed, a conservative small-dollar fundraising organization.

Cramer spent more than $1.52 million since January 2023, which included tens of thousands in expenditures to 814 Consulting LLC, a D.C.-area consulting firm, and Tag LLC, a fundraising consulting firm.

Cramer finished the reporting period with nearly $3.3 million in cash.

“It still costs a lot of money to raise a lot of money,” Cramer said in an interview with the North Dakota Monitor. “It’s just that you get to raise so much more, in bigger chunks.”

Cramer said he is part of a joint fundraising committee with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, which distributes funds to lawmakers who are connected to the committee.

“There are a lot of Texans that are corporate citizens of North Dakota and they invest heavily in our state, particularly in the oil and gas world,” he said.

Cramer added many political action committees are industry related, like agriculture and energy, and taking money from them is similar to accepting donations from the employees in those fields.

“PACs tend to invest with people they agree with that are representing their interests well,” he said. “There is nothing inherently bad about political action committees, it’s just the aggregation of small donors into large.”

Democratic-NPL Senate candidate Katrina Christiansen raised $1.15 million since October 2023, which included multiple donations from ActBlue, a political action committee servicing small donations to Democratic candidates, totalling more than $138,000.

Christiansen spent more than $954,000 over the same time period, which included more than $166,000 to Sapphire Strategies, a digital advertising consulting firm.

She finished the reporting period with more than $200,000 in cash. 

“We invested heavily in developing a small-dollar donor program,” Christiansen said. “We would’ve outraised Cramer three-to-one if he hadn’t gotten those corporate PAC donations and those leadership funds.”

She added the campaign just made large television advertising buys, so voters will be seeing more of her.

“Having those small-dollar donors have completely changed politics, look at Kamala,” she said. Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly raised more than $81 million in the 24 hours since President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and endorsed her as his successor, according to The Associated Press.

“You need enough to get name recognition, you need enough to travel around, you need enough to have the things for it to be competitive,” Christiansen said. “That’s what makes races healthy and our democracy healthy.”

Republican U.S. House candidate Julie Fedorchak raised more than $1.39 million in donations since January, which included multiple donations from WinRed totaling more than $220,000.

Fedorchak spent more than $1.12 million over the same time period, which included more than $413,000 to AxMedia, a national political media advertisement buying and consulting company, leading up to the June 11 primary.

She ended the reporting period with more than $264,000 in cash.

“Obviously, we had a competitive primary election, but I was really pleased with how folks were so supportive during that,” said Sean Cleary, Fedorchak’s campaign manager.

Cleary said he expects Fedorchak’s strong fundraising numbers to continue.

“We’ve been lucky and fortunate to get donations from North Dakotans in all walks of life,” he said. 

Dem-NPL U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer raised more than $560,000 since January, which included multiple donations from ActBlue totaling more than $58,000.

Hammer spent more than $397,000 over the same time period, which included nearly $70,000 to Turnkey Text Company LLC, more than $12,000 to Berlin Rosen LLC, a digital consulting company, and about $9,500 to Lake Research Partners.

He finished the quarterly reporting period with nearly $163,000 in cash.

“Our average donation is $27,” said Sydnee Jewett, Hammer’s campaign manager. “It’s really difficult to raise money as a Democrat in North Dakota because it’s been a long time since we’ve been competitive, and I think it just goes to show how enthusiastic people are about Trygve and the opportunity that we have to potentially flip the seat.”

Jewett said the campaign accumulated about 18,000 individual contributions so far and she believes Hammer has the ability to outraise previous Dem-NPL U.S. House candidates.

Candidates must file another quarterly fundraising and expense report with the FEC by Oct. 15.

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