Krebs Raises More Money than Johnson for U.S. House Race

After running without analysis Dusty Johnson’s false claim of record fundraising for his U.S. House campaign, Dakota War College further exposes its in-the-tankedness for Team Dusty by ignoring the main headline from Johnson’s and his Republican opponent Shantel Krebs’s Q2 FEC reports: over the last three months, Krebs raised more money than Johnson.

According to the FEC filings DWC posted over the weekend, in April through June, Krebs raised $131,066 while Johnson raised $122,213.

Johnson still leads Krebs in cash on hand and overall fundraising. Johnson has raised $354,578.84 and has $288,563 in the bank, while Krebs has raised $271,113 and has $230,470 on hand. But Johnson launched his campaign last November 14, four months before Krebs. Johnson has been campaigning more than twice as long, but he only has 30% more total fundraising to show for it.

And while both have cooled from the per-day rates I calculated in April, Krebs is still squeezing more money per day from donors, raising an average of $2,464.66 per day on the campaign trail, %59 better than Johnson’s $1,548.38 daily take.

In addition to the glaring omission of Krebs’s fundraising superiority to Johnson, the Johnson-sponsored DWC uses other language to boost its man while dismissing the woman who ousted its past patron:

• DWC says Johnson is “chugging along”; DWC gives Krebs no such muscular verb.
• Johnson is “maintaining” cash on hand, while Krebs is “sitting on” money in the bank. Johnson gets an active verb; Krebs gets a more passive verb.
• DWC lists notable donors to each candidate, but emphasizes that Johnson’s donors include “a pile of other names you might recognize.”
• DWC notes Krebs’s spending on “consulting” from two out-of-state firms, and Republicans and Democrats alike like to ding campaigns for out-of-state influence. DWC omits mention of Johnson’s expenses… but this time, that’s o.k., since Dusty didn’t spend anything on out-of-state consultants or vendors in Q2! Well done, Dusty, keeping it all local!