Trump-endorsed Alaska Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka saw the greatest fundraising numbers yet in the third quarter of the campaign to oust pro-impeachment Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Breitbart News learned Friday.
Tshibaka raised a total of $1.3 million in the third quarter of 2022, bringing her cash-on-hand total to over $1 million at the end of the quarter. Over the course of the campaign, she has raised a total of $4.3 million.
Tshibaka has already attracted over 3,000 online donations since the beginning of October in the fourth quarter, the campaign told Breitbart News.
Mary Ann Pruitt, an adviser to the Tshibaka campaign, told Breitbart News the positive fundraising numbers show Tshibaka has clear momentum heading into the election just 24 days away. “All the momentum is with Kelly Tshibaka, clearly, as she has been hard at work meeting with the people of Alaska and hearing their concerns,” Pruitt said in a statement.
According to ABC News/FiveThirtyEight’s simulation of the race, Tshibaka is leading 21-year incumbent Murkowski. The model supports polling showing Tshibaka has a slight edge over the incumbent. The projection is notable because Murkowski has allied herself with the establishment uniparty in Washington, DC, where she has voted nine times with Democrats in the 2021-2022 cycle.
“She has been steadily building to this point and is showing strength, impressive fundraising, and a clear lead in ABC News’ statistical analysis of the race,” Pruitt continued. “It’s no wonder that Lisa Murkowski and her D.C. allies like Mitch McConnell are dumping millions of dollars into Alaska on ads full of desperate lies about Kelly.”
Tshibaka has out-raised Murkowski with in-state contributions by more than $400,000, making up about 55 percent of her total donations, according to OpenSecrets. In contrast, Murkowski has raised 85 percent of her money from out-of-state donors.
Murkowski was given the Senate seat 21 years ago by her father. Since then, she has been an ally of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is financially supporting the Alaskan senator over other Republican Senate candidates in battleground states. Pruitt added:
Murkowski has grown increasingly liberal since she was appointed to her seat by her father, and now serves as a key ally of Joe Biden, whose radical agenda has attacked Alaska every day he’s been in office. It’s time for a change in Alaska, and Kelly Tshibaka will be a senator who will fight for her state, instead of always doing the bidding of the D.C. elites.
Former President Donald Trump has ripped McConnell for funding Murkowski over other Republican candidates. “Old Broken Crow, Mitchell McConnell, is authorizing $9 Million Dollars to be spent in order to beat a great Republican, Kelly, instead of $9 Million Dollars that could be used for Blake Masters, and other Republicans,” Trump said in a press release. “Isn’t it ironic?”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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