Jones raises over 86% from out-of-state individuals in latest fundraising period

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February 22, 2020

In the latest fundraising disclosure he filed this week, Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) reported raising over twice as much from individuals in California and New York alone than he raised from constituents in Alabama.

The latest Federal Election Commission report covered January 1 – February 12 and was due on Thursday.

Jones raised a total of $2,536,997, spent $591,603 and finished the period with $7,422,820 cash-on-hand.

The total amount Jones raised in the six-week timeframe included $1,063,860 in itemized contributions from individuals.

Yellowhammer News analyzed those itemized individual contributions, finding that only 13.41% of them came from self-reported residents of Alabama. This means that 86.59% of Jones’ itemized individual contributions during the period were from out-of-state.

California was by far the biggest benefactor for Alabama’s junior senator, to the tune of $229,464 (21.58%). New Yorkers contributed $134,870 (12.68%) in itemized individual contributions.

The combination of California, New York and the Washington, D.C. metro area accounted for a total of $478,010 (44.94%) in itemized individual contributions.

It should be noted that the above percentages do not factor in PAC contributions. The locations of these committees would drive the geographic breakdown towards the out-of-state side of the equation even more.

Jones raised $119,166 during the period from leadership PACs and joint fundraising committees alone. This included $63,500 from Senator Diane Feinstein’s (D-CA) Fund for the Majority PAC, which seeks to make Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) the Senate Majority Leader. Jones also received $44,000 from People’s Voice PAC, affiliated with Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

This continues a trend of mostly raising money from outside the state of Alabama for Jones. In a previous quarter, the Democrat actually received more in individual itemized contributions from overseas than from his own home state.

Jones is unopposed on the March 3 primary election date. He will go on to face the ultimate Republican nominee in November.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn