Governor Edwards campaign is reporting they raised 2.55 million dollars in the 1st quarter of 2019, giving the reelection effort a total of 10.2 million dollars cash on hand.
His two Republican challengers have yet to release their numbers, but political analyst Clancy DuBos says Edwards fundraising sends a strong message to the GOP.
“Those are very healthy numbers for an incumbent governor or a challenger. They have ten million dollars in the bank and six months out, that’s very good.”
4,246 people donated to the campaign for an average donation of 600 dollars during the quarter that ended on April 5th.
But, Edwards fundraising is about to screech to a halt over the next three months as Louisiana law prohibits election fundraising during legislative sessions. DuBos says this gives the GOP a chance to dramatically close the gap.
“It does give a tremendous opportunity to his challengers, but if they do not catch up during that time period it could say a lot about their prospective candidacies.”
Edwards is being challenged by Congressman Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone.
There’s reports that other Republicans have been approached about joining the race, candidates who could potentially bring more robust fundraising, but DuBos says this late in the game the party is better off doubling down on the two they have…
“Those two candidates need to be given time by the party to show what they can do. If they can’t do anything by July then frankly nobody else is going to be able to step in anyway.”
The Edwards campaign has raised 12.1 million dollars total so far for the election cycle.
