California Senator Dianne Feinstein said she will announce whether to run for her seat in the spring. Donors are already saying she won’t.
(Bloomberg) — California Senator Dianne Feinstein said she will announce whether to run for her seat in the spring. Donors are already saying she won’t.
The 89-year-old Democrat raised just $558.91 over the last three months and has less than $10,000 in cash in the bank, according to a Federal Election Commission filing released Tuesday. The figures suggest little confidence among donors that she will run in a race that’s gearing up to be the most expensive Senate primary ever.
The filing showed that she lacks the funds that would be necessary for any federal campaign, much less a contest against two prolific fundraisers, Representatives Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. They announced earlier this month that they plan to run.
Indeed, Porter’s campaign said she raised $1.3 million on the day she announced her candidacy. Schiff hasn’t released fundraising numbers, but he had more than $20 million on hand at the end of November.
Despite nearing her 10th decade and reports of memory and health issues, Feinstein, the oldest and longest-serving US Senator in office, has held off on announcing whether she plans to run again in 2024. Meanwhile, her campaign website is defunct, even though her Facebook page refers to it as a contact.
Her fundraising haul now more closely resembles that for local government candidates. In 2018, when Feinstein was last reelected, she raised more than $16 million.
Feinstein’s campaign account also has about $505,000 in outstanding debts, with almost all of that amount owed to the candidate. Feinstein lent her 2018 campaign $8 million.
–With assistance from Bill Allison.
(Updates last paragraph with campaign’s debt. A previous version of this story was corrected to fix an error in the headline.)
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