U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., has raised and spent roughly double the amount of money as her Democratic challenger, Missy Cotter Smasal.

According to campaign finance reports both 2nd Congressional District candidates filed Oct. 15 with the Federal Elections Commission, Kiggans raised $5.6 million and spent $4 million, leaving $1.5 million on hand as of Sept. 30.

Smasal raised $2.5 million and spent $2.1 million, leaving just over $428,000 on hand by the same date.

Independent candidate Robert Reid reported no contributions or spending.

The funding totals reflect donations and expenditures since Jan. 1, 2023.

Kiggans has received $18,455, or 0.3%, of her funding from 13 Isle of Wight County donors, five of whom have contributed $1,000 or more to date.

Two Isle of Wight donors have contributed to Smasal’s campaign to date, according to a breakdown of reported donations by zip code.

Separately, the Congressional Leadership Fund has raised $287,500 since 2021 to support Kiggans. Americans For Prosperity Action Inc. has raised another $69,768 in support of Kiggans.

According to the FEC, traditional political action committees are limited to making contributions of up to $5,000 per election per candidate to a candidate’s authorized campaign committee, but so-called super PACs may accept unlimited funds from individuals, corporations and labor organizations to fund independent expenditures, but are prohibited from making direct contributions to candidates.

Kiggans’ top sources of funding include just over $152,000 to date from WinRed, an Arlington-based fundraising platform for Republican candidates, and just over $360,000 from Protect the House 2024, a Republican super PAC tied to former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Ca.

Smasal’s top sources of funding include $253,831 from ActBlue, the Massachusetts-based counterpart fundraising platform to WinRed for Democratic candidates, and Emily’s List, a Washington, D.C.-based PAC that supports abortion-rights candidates.

Raising the most money doesn’t necessarily translate to winning more votes. In 2022 when Kiggans faced former U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., as a first-time candidate, Luria as the incumbent had amassed $8.7 million to Kiggans’ $2.7 million as of Sept. 30 of that year, though Kiggans ultimately won the election.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, 5,664 early ballots had been cast in Isle of Wight County as of Oct. 17, down 11.3% from the 6,386 cast by the same date in 2020.

 

What about Surry?

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., had raised $2.6 million and spent $2.4 million as of Sept. 30. The total is roughly six times the $413,717 her Republican challenger, William “Bill” Moher, had raised, and the $409,468 he’d spent as of the same date. Her filings showed no individual Surry County donors.

Moher’s campaign finance reports show he’d invested just over $402,000 of his own money into the race as of Sept. 30. His reports too list no individual Surry County donors.

McClellan, in 2023, defeated her previous Republican challenger, Leon Benjamin, with nearly three-fourths of the votes cast in a special election that year to decide who would succeed the late U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va.