What's notable here, besides raising this much money during a pandemic, is that Katie Porter represents a part of Orange County, one of the reddest areas left in California. Usually, this means she'd be vulnerable, with Republicans pouring in cash to try and regain the seat. Not so this year. Larry Sabato's Center for Politics just put Katie Porter into the SAFE column, meaning they think she'll easily win re-election, in an area that had been sending Republicans-only to congress for probably the last fifty years. Porter is so strong in CA-45 that the NRCC isn't even seriously contesting her district.
Source: Politico
Freshman Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), the most prolific fundraiser among endangered House Democrats, brought in $2.5 million during the second quarter of the year.
Porter’s total, generated from 131,000 contributions, is staggering not just because she raised it in the midst of a global economic crisis. It also is the fifth consecutive quarter that she has cleared the $1 million mark. Her fundraising prowess has firmed up her reelection prospects and knocked her Orange County swing seat to the very edge of the House battleground map.
Her campaign will report $6.6 million in its reelection war chest as June 30. Porter, who ousted GOP Rep. Mimi Walters in 2018, has banked more in 18 months than most veteran members of Congress. Only four members had over $6 million in cash on hand at the end of the first quarter, according to a POLITICO analysis of FEC filings — and none were freshmen.
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Porter’s challenger, Mission Viejo City Councilman Greg Raths, has not released his second-quarter totals, but so far he has not come close to matching her financially. He ended the first quarter with just over $151,000 in the bank. He is notably not included in the National Republican Congressional Committee’s program for top-tier House campaigns, despite the seat's history of voting for GOP candidates and the tight nature of Porter's race against Walters last cycle.
