(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/02/2023) Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) today announced she raised $825,000 in one quarter to replace Congressman Dan Kildee (D-Flint) in MI-08, a total apparently helped along by Kildee’s own contributions.
Kildee announced he would not be seeking re-election in November 2023 after going through a cancer scare. He has not yet made a formal endorsement.
But McDonald-Rivet, who also announced she broke a fundraising record for a non-incumbent U.S. House candidate’s first quarter, touted Kildee’s maximum contributions received from both his candidate committee and Leadership political action committee (PAC).
The contributions, first reported by MLive, included $10,000 from Michigan’s Future, his leadership PAC, and $4,000 from Friends of Dan Kildee.
Quarterly campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) aren’t due until April 15, but McDonald Rivet gave a preview, and said her support comes from a “robust coalition” of 1,500 donors.
“I am grateful to each member of our broad and diverse coalition who chose to invest their hard-earned money in our campaign,” she said. “We have built this campaign from the ground up, person by person, since launching in January. It includes labor unions, pastors, small business owners, law enforcement officers, farmers and many more from every corner of the 8th Congressional District.”
The 8th District, which has been rated a toss-up with a 54.8 percent Dem base as of 2022, will likely require a lot of money to win.
In 2022, Kildee spent more than $6.3 million to secure his re-election and the district saw more than $18 million in total spending, with at least $12 million spent on TV ads by his and Republican Paul Junge’s campaigns, along with D.C. interest groups.
Also in the race for the Democrats are Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley, Board of Education President Pamela Pugh and Dan Moilanen.
Republicans in the running include State Board of Education Member Nikki Snyder, trucking company owner Anthony Hudson and Junge, who was the Republicans’ 2020 nominee in the old 8th District and 2022 nominee in the current 8th.
