President Donald Trump is coming to Kansas City on Tuesday in part to headline a lunch fundraiser for U.S. Senate hopeful Josh Hawley.
It’s good timing: The Missouri GOP primary is two weeks away, and even though the attorney general is widely expected to win the Aug. 7 election, he’s lagging behind Democrat Claire McCaskill when it comes to the money race.
The latest Federal Election Commission numbers, which go up through June 30, show Hawley has $3 million cash on hand — well ahead of GOP primary opponents such as Austin Petersen and Tony Monetti, who have $37,579 and $41,494 respectively.
But Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill’s haul through June is $12 million cash on hand.
On both sides, there's a lot of outside money from political action committees that report to the FEC and nonprofits that don't have to disclose such information. Hawley also has the Republican National Committee’s coffers available for the primary.
Hawley often criticizes McCaskill for her out-of-state donations; the FEC filing shows she’s collected more than $4 million combined from donors in New York and California.
“She votes where her party’s money is. She’s a liberal, partisan Democrat who goes running for the money,” Hawley told KCUR’s Up To Date earlier this summer.
But McCaskill has raised almost six times more money in-state than Hawley. She told Up To Date on June 1 that “the fact that people give me money, I think people can tell by my record, has not impacted my willingness to take on any wrongdoing that affects Missouri’s families.”
Hawley’s main sources of fundraising are in the state of Missouri, though he’s received more than $140,000 from donors in Texas.
Trump also is scheduled to give a speech to the national Veteran of Foreign Wars conference on Tuesday, which will be open to media coverage. Hawley’s campaign said the fundraiser is closed to the media.
Editor's note: Previously reported figures regarding outside money have been removed because FEC reports do not include all contributions. The story also has removed a reference to a St. Louis fundraiser earlier this year, which was not open to the public.
Erica Hunzinger is the editor of Harvest Public Media and an editor at KCUR 89.3. Follow her on Twitter: @ehunzinger
