The race for one of Tennessee's two Senate seats is among the most watched in this election season. State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) and Memphis activist Marquita Bradshaw (who previously ran for Tennessee's other Senate seat) are vying for the 2024 Democratic nomination in the Aug. 1 primary. The winner will go up against incumbent Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn in November.
Heading into the primary next week, candidates were required to submit filings to the Federal Election Commission just five days after their July quarterly reports were due. The pre-primary reports cover a roughly two-week period of July 1 to 12.
Republican Primary
Blackburn still has more than $8 million on hand, having spent around $608,000 during the reporting period. She raised about $25,000 in contributions from individuals and around $60,000 from other political committees for a total of $85,302.
The individual contributions came from people in states including Hawaii, California, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida and New York in addition to Tennessee. The amounts range from a few cents to the $3,300 maximum allowed for an individual. Blackburn received two of those large donations for this period.
Legislature star has spent her Democratic primary campaign running against Marsha Blackburn
One was from Jordan Cooper of Brentwood, the chief financial officer of Cooper Steel. The other is from Charles Flint, who is Blackburn's former chief of staff and now vice president of strategic relationships at Breitbart News Network. Another of the larger donations from this report was $1,000 from H. Todd Kaestner from Franklin, the Brookdale Senior Living executive vice president of corporate development and president of continuing care retirement communities. Blackburn also received $1,000 donations from D.C. lawyer and former federal communications commissioner Robert McDowell, Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn, and president and CEO of a D.C. lobbying firm Thomas J. Petrizzo.
Blackburn received more than $23,000 from the conservative WinRed PAC, which has supported her with more than $1.83 million in total during the campaign. Blackburn does have a Republican challenger in the primary, Tres Whittum, but he does not have any campaign finance filings on the FEC website.
Democratic Primary
In the race for the Democratic nomination, Johnson spent about $166,000 this period and reported nearly $175,000 in contributions. She has the most on hand of all the Democratic candidates at about $2 million heading into the primary next week.
Many of Johnson’s individual contributions are earmarked through the ActBlue PAC but are from Tennessee donors. She has received 15 individual $1,000 contributions from people in various states such as Tennessee, Massachusetts, Ohio and California. Owner of New York-based lingerie brand Hanky Panky Lida Orzeck and California-based AnswerLab CEO Amy Buckner both made a complete $3,300 contribution.
She is far outearning her competition in former nominee Bradshaw and former Fayette County educator Civil Miller-Watkins. Johnson has pulled in a total of more than $5 million in contributions up to this point. Bradshaw and Miller-Watkins have reported a total of $36,000 and $23,500, respectively.
Andy Ogles, left, faces a primary challenge from Courtney Johnston
5th Congressional District Primaries
Meanwhile, Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston is just barely outearning incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles in the Republican primary for Tennessee's 5th Congressional District after pre-primary financial filings.
Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston takes on incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles for the Republican vote
So far in the election cycle, Johnston has reported more than $784,000 in receipts, while Ogles has reported around $722,000. Ogles has more cash on hand currently with $305,501 in the bank. Johnston has just under that at $263,926. She has far outspent Ogles in the pre-primary reporting period, spending nearly $302,000 to Ogles' $9,435. However, they are neck and neck for total spending, with Johnston reporting more than $520,000 in disbursements and Ogles reporting more than $541,000.
Ogles brought in only about $7,810 donors in this time frame. South Carolina’s U.S. House Rep. William Timmons contributed $2,000. Ogles also received $1,800 seemingly from Monarch Alternative Capital managing principal Joshua Acheatel.
Talking to reporter Eli Motycka about state and federal primary matchups
With $61,600 in donations, Johnston was still bringing in bigger local donors in the last report. She had 15 contributions of $1,000, including from president and managing partner of Fridrich & Clark Realty Steve Fridrich, executive vice president of Bacar Construction Bill Godwin, principal and attorney for Manier & Herod Sam Poteet, and business development manager at Manganaro Building Group Jonathan Holmes. She received three $2,000 contributions from Gresham Smith CSO Randall Gibson, Novarnet CEO Jeff Peterson and Enterprise Electric owner Michael Campbell. She also received seven $3,300 donations from donors such as real estate investor and partner at Green & Little Investments L.A. Green, I.C. Thomasson Associates CEO John Wimberly, TensorX CEO Edward Powell, Jones Bros. president Dale McCulloch and his wife Mary.
Maryam Abolfazli is running for the Democratic nomination for Ogles' seat and has earned $174,863 during the primary. She has about $53,630 on hand heading into Election Day next week. She will face either Ogles or Johnston in the general election on Nov. 5.
This article was originally published in two parts (one, two) by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
