Glenn Funk raised $170,000 in the first quarter of 2022, more than double the amount of his next-closest competitor in the race for district attorney. Sara Beth Myers raised $77,638 in the quarter, while P. Danielle Nellis raised $34,219.
Funk’s total for the race comes to more than $650,000, an advantage that has been reflected on television, where the incumbent chief prosecutor’s spots have been touting his record for more than a month. Myers, meanwhile, just aired her first ad last week. Nellis, who described her campaign as “people-powered” to the Scene in an earlier interview, may lack resources but picked up a little star power with a $1,000 donation from Stacey Abrams, the Georgia gubernatorial candidate.
The stretch run for Funk and Myers may prove to be more competitive, however. The two have roughly the same amount of cash on hand heading into early voting — $235,000 and $239,000, respectively — thanks to a $115,000 loan Myers made to her campaign just before the deadline.
Myers appears to have found a fundraising niche in the wake of the RaDonda Vaught verdict. The former federal prosecutor was highly critical of the decision by Funk’s office to pursue criminally negligent homicide charges against the former Vanderbilt nurse. After Vaught was found guilty, Myers raised $27,226 in the final six days of the period, more than one-third of her total donations. Of the post-Vaught contributions, just more than 10 percent came from out of state and almost a quarter came from donors identified as working in the health care industry.
Funk, meanwhile, received donations from a number of political action committees, including $8,600 from Bass Berry & Sims’ PAC, $6,600 from We Are Ready Nashville, a coalition of Lower Broad businesses, $2,500 from the Tennessee Laborers PAC and $2,000 from the H.G. Hill Realty PAC.
Candidates are required to file one more disclosure before the May 3 Democratic primary date.
This article first ran via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
