Slight Rebound in Cramer’s Fourth Quarter Fundraising

Congressman Kevin Cramer’s fundraising reports are posted. Cramer has begun to raise funds in two campaign accounts. “Cramer for Congress” is the primary campaign account and the one that I’ve written about throughout 2017. The “Cramer Victory Fund” which formed on 11/29/17, is a joint fundraising agreement between Congressman Kevin Cramer, Badlands PAC (Cramer’s PAC), the North Dakota Republican Party, and the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee). Here is what the reports show.

In the fourth quarter, “Cramer for Congress” raised $204,285 which is a slight rebound from his third quarter report where he raised $103,325. Cramer currently has $951,767.32 cash on hand heading into his reelection bid. The report also indicates he’s raised $879,789.51 this election cycle. The pay practices of Cramer’s campaign have been called into question. I wrote about that last month following a Politico report. During this filing period, Cramer has reimbursed himself $4,151 and paid his wife who manages his campaign $6,000.

The “Cramer Victory Fund” is the other fundraising account the Congressman has begun to utilize. In its one month of existence during this reporting period, the account raised $170,400 and reports to have $161,597.37 cash on hand. This money will likely be split between Cramer, the NDGOP, and the NRCC. An interesting note about this report is only $1,000 of the amount raised came from North Dakota. In other words, a lot of this money going to the NDGOP and Cramer came from out-of-state. Remember that next time you see people gripe about out-of-state money in ND politics.

Last month Congressman Cramer made it official that he’d seek reelection and forgo a challenge to Senator Heidi Heitkamp. I’ve pointed to these less than stellar fundraising reports as an indicator that he wasn’t going to make the leap. This dollar amount likely would not have been sufficient in a Senate bid, but it very well could be a significant war chest for a reelection bid. Now that people know exactly what Cramer is running for, it’ll be interesting to see how it impacts his fundraising ability.

Cramer Victory Fund Year End Report by Tyler Axness on Scribd

4th Quarter Cramer for Congress by Tyler Axness on Scribd