Jacky Rosen again outpaces Dean Heller in Senate race fundraising

CARSON CITY — For the fourth straight quarter, Democratic challenger Jacky Rosen has raised more campaign contributions than incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller.

Heller’s campaign announced on Tuesday that it had raised $2.38 million during the second quarter of 2018 — April 1 to June 30 — more than double what Nevada’s senior senator raised in the year’s first quarter.

But Heller’s haul trailed that of his Democratic rival, and by a good margin.

The Rosen campaign announced Monday that it had hauled in $3.5 million during the second quarter — about $1.3 million more than she raised in the first three months of the year.

That has been the trend dating back a full calendar year in the race that is viewed as one of the key contests in determining which party controls the U.S. Senate after the November elections.

Since announcing her candidacy in July 2017, Rosen has outraised Heller $8.3 million to $5.3 million.

Democrats view the race as one of the party’s best opportunities to gain a seat, in large part because Heller is the only Republican incumbent senator up for reelection in a state that Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

A bright spot for Heller, however, is that his campaign has a significant lead in one category: campaign cash going forward.

Heller’s $5.85 million in cash on hand puts him about $2 million ahead of Rosen, who reported having $3.8 million.

Rosen’s campaign said that her second quarter fundraising “appears to have set a record for the most raised in the second quarter of an election year for a U.S. Senate race in Nevada.”

“The support and enthusiasm for our campaign to flip this Senate seat have been unbelievable, and it’s helping bring us that much closer to a win in November,” Rosen’s campaign manager Danny Kazin said in a press release announcing the numbers.

Heller’s camp stated that this was the senator’s best fundraising quarter ever and that that he is outpacing the fundraising marks from his election bid in 2012. It also noted that his nearly $6 million in cash on hand is ahead of the totals for both Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Joe Heck had raised at this point in their 2016 Senate race.

“Thanks to our supporters across the state, our campaign continues to build its war chest as we head into this fall,” Heller campaign spokesman Keith Schipper said in a statement.

Contact Capital Bureau reporter Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.