Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) reported a massive fundraising haul for the first quarter of the year, announcing plans to boost other Republicans in New York as part of their efforts to defend their slim House majority.
Stefanik, who is the fourth-highest-ranking Republican and leads the House GOP Conference, raked in $3 million during the first fundraising quarter, according to her office. A majority of those contributions came from small-dollar donors, placing Stefanik among other GOP leaders who reported high fundraising numbers over the last three months.
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“The fight to save our country and our state will not be easy but I have never been more determined to work my hardest to save our country,” Stefanik said in a statement. “I am grateful for the hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors in Upstate New York and across the country.”
The fundraising haul comes as Stefanik prepares to launch a new “battleground fund” to defend House Republican seats in the Empire State, particularly those that were flipped red during the midterm elections. Republicans flipped four seats in New York alone during the 2022 cycle, accounting for about one-third of the GOP’s midterm gains that helped secure the House majority.
The New York Battleground Fund will go toward defending those four Republicans as well as boosting former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to Stefanik.
“We will work our hardest to defeat the Democrats across New York and the country, to protect and expand our House Majority and elect President Trump,” Stefanik said.
The battleground fund builds on Stefanik’s fundraising efforts from the 2022 cycle, during which the Republican leader raised $18 million, breaking the record for money raised by any New York Republican in history as well as any GOP conference chairperson in history.
Republicans were able to flip four seats in New York during the midterm cycle, leading to the election of freshman Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Marc Molinaro, George Santos, and Mike Lawler, who unseated former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney. All four are up for reelection in 2024, and each of their races is considered to be toss-ups, with the exception of Santos, whose race is predicted to lean Democratic, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
“Elise has been tremendously helpful to the entire New York delegation,” Molinaro said. “She understands how important it is for New Yorkers to have strong conservative voices representing them in Congress. Like myself, she flipped a blue seat. Elise is a fighter, an incredible fundraiser, and knows what it takes to win. We are proud to have her as the leader of our delegation.”
However, the freshman lawmakers must also grapple with fundraising debt lingering from their expensive midterm campaigns, which could put them at a disadvantage.
Santos has racked up the most debt, owing $755,000 in loans and committee payments, according to the FEC. Santos already faces an uphill battle for reelection as he faces a flurry of scandals after fabricating several details about his resume on the campaign trail, including his education and work background.
Meanwhile, Molinaro fared a bit better with just $59,288 in debt. Lawler and D’Esposito do not have any reported debt, according to the FEC.
It’s not unusual for candidates who ran competitive races to report low amounts of cash on hand or to be in debt immediately after an election cycle. A handful of Democrats have reported similar numbers as they prepare for tough reelection challenges.
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All 435 seats are up for grabs in 2024 as Republicans seek to hold their slim majority in the lower chamber. Of these, 42 are considered competitive, with most of those held by Democrats compared to Republicans, giving the GOP a slight advantage as it prepares for the next election cycle.
However, of the 42 competitive seats, 18 are held by Republicans in districts that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, compared to just five Democrats who must defend their seats in districts carried by former President Donald Trump. That means there are just enough vulnerable GOP-held seats to keep things competitive heading into the next election cycle.