Incumbents see cash advantage in competitive Virginia congressional races -

RICHMOND — Money is flowing into Virginia’s most competitive congressional races this year, with the latest campaign finance reports showing a cash advantage for incumbents but Democrats outpacing Republicans in a pair of open seats in Northern Virginia.

In the only statewide race on the fall ballot, incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) reported a significant fundraising lead over his Republican challenger, Hung Cao. With recent polls suggesting that purple Virginia is in play in this year’s presidential contest, holding onto Kaine’s seat will be crucial for any Democratic hopes of maintaining their thin majority in the Senate.

For the one-month reporting period that ended June 30, Kaine received contributions of almost $882,000 compared with about $561,000 for Cao, according to filings this week with the Federal Election Commission. That left Kaine with more than $7.8 million in cash on hand, while Cao reported having a little under $410,000 in cash remaining.

This week’s campaign finance reports completed the second quarterly filing period for federal candidates. For the full quarter, Kaine reported raising a total of about $2.9 million, which included money from political action committees as well as contributions from individuals.

Over the same quarter, Cao reported raising a total of just over $1 million.

In the Northern Virginia race to succeed Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), Democratic state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam (Loudoun) raised 10 times as much his Republican opponent Mike Clancy during June, collecting nearly $240,000 through his principal campaign committee, according to its most recent campaign finance reports. A joint fundraising committee raising funds for Subramanyam and other Democrats in Virginia collected $88,700.

Subramanyam’s campaign had $156,000 in available cash, while Clancy’s had $28,300.

Subramanyam received $41,000 from PACs and relied heavily on donations from outside the district, including from other states, according to his campaign committee’s most recent report, which covers the month of June.

He garnered $3,300 donations — the federal limit on individual donations to candidates — from a health company executive in Los Altos Hills, Calif.; the co-chair of a private investment firm in Charlottesville; and an executive of the Five Guys hamburger chain who lives in Aldie, Va.

Several donations also came from South Asian donors, a reflection of the heavy support Subramanyam has received from that community in his 10th District bid to become Virginia’s first South Asian representative in Congress. A PAC affiliated with the Indian American Impact advocacy group has so far this year spent $265,000 in support of Subramanyam’s candidacy.

Subramanyam said the possibility of making history has fueled the support from around the country.

“We knew that people would take interest in the historic nature of this campaign, and we’ve continued to hear that my background in tech and in the Obama administration is leading to nationwide support,” he said in a statement.

Clancy, a tech company executive, is entering the summer with $250,000 in loans he made to himself still not returned.

His largest donations of $3,300 each came from business executives, including the founder of a glass and glazing subcontractor who lives in Bluemont, Va., and the treasurer of an industrial real estate company in Winchester.

After a relatively slow fundraising period before and after the June primary election, Clancy’s campaign manager said they expected to “kick it into high gear” in the coming weeks.

In the more competitive race to replace Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) in the 7th District, Democrat Eugene Vindman outraised his Republican opponent, Derrick Anderson.

Vindman — a retired U.S. Army colonel who, along with his twin brother Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, is known as a whistleblower during former president Donald Trump’s first impeachment — collected $2.4 million during the month, with about 2 percent coming from PACs. Anderson, a former Army Green Beret, raised $155,000, with slightly more than a third coming from PACs. A joint fundraising committee raising funds for Anderson and other Republican congressional candidates in multiple states collected $11 million.

Vindman had $2.2 million in available cash. Anderson had $461,000, though his campaign still owed $246,000 in loans and other debts.

Both candidates also relied in part on donations from outside Virginia.

Contributions of $3,300 each poured in for Vindman from New York and Massachusetts, while smaller amounts came from Rhode Island, Maryland and Colorado.

Several of Anderson’s largest donors live in Colorado, Texas or New York, while smaller donations came from Kentucky, Tennessee and South Dakota. During his primary election bid, Vindman received $1.3 million in outside support from the VoteVets and Protect Progress PACs. Anderson got a combined $885,000 in outside support from the American Patriots PAC and the Republican Congressional Leadership Fund.

In another potentially close race drawing national attention, Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) has a big bankroll to defend her Virginia Beach-based seat against Democratic challenger Missy Cotter Smasal.

Kiggans, a geriatric nurse practitioner and retired Navy helicopter pilot, reported raising a total of just over $490,000 for the one-month period that just ended, including almost $359,000 from individuals and almost $132,000 from PACs. That left her with nearly $2.5 million in cash on hand.

Cotter Smasal, also a Navy veteran in this military-heavy district, raised a similar amount for June, at just over $480,000. Most of her contributions — more than $401,000 — came from individuals, with a little more than $74,000 from PACs. She ended the period with slightly under $585,000 in cash available.

The 2nd Congressional District seat is considered highly competitive, with Republicans eager to defend it to maintain their majority in the House and Democrats hoping to flip it in pursuit of their own majority.

Both candidates also picked up donors from across Virginia and other states. Kiggans posted maximum contributions from GOP megadonor Stephen Schwarzman of New York — chairman of the Blackstone private equity firm — and Cotter Smasal got a similar contribution from California tech investor and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

In the hotly contested 5th District Republican primary race between Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) and challenger state Sen. John J. McGuire III (R-Goochland), the incumbent is behind McGuire in state-certified results by a razor-thin margin — he has requested a recount — and was slightly outraised by his opponent. Both candidates’ fundraising, though, was swamped by some $10.7 million in outside contributions from national PACs, which turned the primary into one of the most expensive in the country, according to an analysis by OpenSecrets.

Good, a founding member of the conservative Freedom Caucus who fell out of favor when he initially endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, had raised a total of almost $1.35 million for his campaign by the end of June.

That included about $158,000 in the final month, and Good wound up with just over $211,000 in cash on hand.

McGuire raised a total of just over $1.4 million, including almost $116,000 in the final month, to finish with a little more than $130,000 in cash on hand. The seat is considered safely Republican, so it is not likely to be competitive in November.

Olivo reported from Washington.

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