Disclosures detail Democrats’ financial dominance in top races

On Dec 9, 2022

Campaign finance disclosures filed Thursday drove home just thoroughly Democrats financially dominated the state’s top races in the midterm election.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer raised a record $38 million throughout the election cycle, while spending nearly $34 million — which includes a $3.5 million contribution her campaign made to the Michigan Democratic Party.

It was nearly four times as much as her Republican opponent Tudor Dixon raised, a difference of nearly $30 million. Whitmer defeated Dixon in the general election by an 11-percentage point margin and ended the filing period with $2.3 million left.

Dixon’s fundraising and spending both picked up aggressively toward the end of the campaign. She outraised and outspent Whitmer in the last few weeks of the election, raising $2 million and spending $4.2 million in the final stretch.

But that was only after her campaign endured months of lethargic fundraising. The campaign failed to build a robust fundraising operation during the primary or in the crucial month after winning the nomination.

The filings covered from Oct. 24 through Nov. 28, and mark the final disclosures of the election cycle.

In less than three weeks before Election Day, Dixon brought in close to a quarter of all the money she raised as a candidate, $8.8 million, and more than half of all the spending, $7.7 million.

It was a similar story in the races for secretary of state and attorney general. Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson outspent her Republican opponent Kristina Karamo nearly five-to-one, spending about $1 million, while Attorney General Dana Nessel’s campaign and Republican Matt DePerno each spent about $500,000.

Nessel, however, raised $5.8 million in total during the election cycle and spent about the same, four times as much as DePerno.

The Michigan Republican Party issued a memo days after the election blaming their loss of control in state government largely on the poor fundraising from their top candidates. DePerno and Dixon rejected the arguments, blaming the party for a lack of institutional support.

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