Katie Arrington, Nancy Mace release latest fundraising hauls in heated SC GOP primary
Republican Katie Arrington has sunk half a million dollars of her own money into her South Carolina congressional campaign as she tries to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace in one of the state’s most high-profile GOP primary contests.
In addition to injecting some of her personal cash into the race, Arrington’s campaign said Tuesday that the former state lawmaker from Summerville has also raised $307,000 from supporters since launching her congressional campaign 52 days ago.
In a statement, Arrington said the decision to give $500,000 to her own campaign was “a demonstration of my commitment to ensuring our district is represented by someone who will advance the America First Agenda.”
Even so, Arrington’s reported $750,000 cash on hand is a fraction of Mace’s $2.3 million war chest as both women try to make their case to Republican primary voters.
Additionally, Mace raked in nearly three times what Arrington did in the first three months of 2022.
Both congressional campaigns announced their latest fundraising figures well ahead of the impending Friday deadline, when federal candidates must report their quarterly fundraising and spending totals to the Federal Elections Commission.
Mace’s campaign went first and publicized her quarterly fundraising totals last week.
In a statement issued at the time, Mace touted her opening election year haul — which covers Jan. 1 through March 31 — as a personal fundraising record, with $1.17 million raised as she seeks reelection in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District.
And Mace said most of her contributions — about 83%, or $970,000 — came during February and March, after former President Donald Trump announced his support for Arrington and held a rally in Florence to boost her candidacy against Mace.
“Momentum in a midterm matters. Candidates who can raise the war chest to win matter. A strong record to run on and win on matters,” Mace said in a statement.
The fundraising totals shared by the Mace campaign reflect money contributed to Mace’s reelection committee, as well as the Team Mace Joint Fundraising Committee. Money from the fundraising committee gets distributed to the campaign committee, the Mace campaign said.
An estimated $300,000 of the total Mace raised in the first three months of 2022 came from a Charleston fundraiser headlined by Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
“You’ve got a winner in Nancy Mace,” Haley told a standing room only crowd at the Harbour Club in March. “The reason I’m coming out so strong for her is not only because she’s my congresswoman, but because she’s pro-business, pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-freedom, pro-family, and she has not let us down. She will never let you down.”
Despite the fundraising gap Arrington faces as she tries to unseat Mace and become the Republican Party’s nominee in the race for Charleston’s seat in Congress, Arrington said she is confident she has the money she needs to succeed.
She’s also got history on her side. In 2018, Arrington stunned the nation when she defeated then-U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford in that primary. Arrington put $408,300 of her own money into that contest.
She went on to lose in the general election to Democrat Joe Cunningham. It was the first time in nearly 40 years that the reliably Republican district elected a Democrat.
When Arrington conceded, she blamed Sanford and his supporters for not unifying behind her.
“Our campaign is well funded and has the necessary resources to ensure voters know Nancy Mace stabbed President Trump in the back and sold them out,” Arrington said in a statement about the financial state of her 2022 campaign. “The voters of South Carolina’s 1st District deserve a servant leader who will prioritize them and not make misguided decisions to serve themself.”
In addition to Arrington and Mace, Lynz Piper-Loomis, an advocate for military veterans, is also running for the GOP nomination.
Piper-Loomis’ campaign has not announced their latest fundraising totals, but her year-end totals show she has less than $1,000 cash on hand despite raising nearly $79,000 last year.
Whoever wins the GOP primary will take on Democrat Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician, in November.
The Republican primary is June 14.
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 3:58 PM.
