Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier hauled in about about $13.5 million in the U.S. Senate race last quarter, establishing what the campaign said was a new record for fundraising in Kansas.
Bollier’s campaign reports that she will have about $7.57 million in cash on hand going into the final weeks of the Senate campaign.
The Bollier campaign said the amount raised in the third quarter was more than any Kansas candidate for a single quarter in history.
The campaign said it will report 453,555 individual contributions for the quarter ending Sept. 30, with 364,878 total donors.
The latest report, due out on Oct. 15, would bring her fundraising total to about $21 million for the cycle so far, and she didn’t start campaigning until last October.
Polls show the race close, with Bollier and Republican Congressman Roger Marshall within only a few percentage points of each other.
The most recent poll, reported first by the Sunflower State Journal last week, showed that Bollier was up by 3.5 percentage points.
Bollier’s new fundraising numbers also are emblematic of what is happening across the country as Democrats rake in record amounts of cash going into the general election in which they are not only positioned to win the presidency but perhaps the Senate as well.
Over the weekend, Democrat Jaime Harrison announced raising $57 million for the third quarter in his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Harrison’s fundraising for the third quarter smashed the previous national quarterly record of $38 million set by Beto O’Rourke in his unsuccessful challenge against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018.
In Iowa, Democrat Theresa Greenfield announced she raised almost $29 million in the third quarter in her race against Republican incumbent Sen. Joni Ernst.
Greenfield’s campaign is managed by Jordy Zeigler, who ran Laura Kelly’s campaign for Kansas governor in 2018.
Over in neighboring Colorado, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Hickenlooper announced last week he raised a record-setting $22.6 million for the third quarter.
The former two-term governor is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in his bid for a second term.
The money that Bollier raised outdistances anything that was brought in during the last two competitive U.S. Senate races in Kansas — the 2010 Republican primary between Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt and the 2014 general election contest between Pat Roberts and Greg Orman.
During the 2010 primary between Moran and Tiahrt, the most either raised in a quarter that cycle was about $500,000. In the second quarter of 2010 leading up to the primary, Moran raised $540,975 to $450,957 for Tiahrt.
Moran raised about $347,000 in the first quarter of 2010 and about $403,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009. He raised about $521,000 in the third quarter.
In 2014, Roberts reported raising about $1.6 million in the third quarter of 2014 leading up to the general election against Greg Orman.
Orman reported bringing in about $1.7 million, including $200,000 in loans, in the third quarter of 2014 as the general election approached.
The announcement by the Bollier campaign comes as Republicans are intensifying their efforts against the Democrat, seizing on recent comments she made about gun control and apparently confusing the Patriot Act with trade policy.
On Sunday, the Marshall campaign jumped all over comments Bollier made at a recent outdoor gathering in Olathe where she held up Australia as an example of a safe way to deal with guns.
“My husband and I actually have a daughter who lives in Australia. They have no guns. They don’t allow them. They just took them all away. And you know what? It’s pretty darn safe. It’s this amazing thing,” Bollier said at that event.
But earlier at that same event, Bollier broached the issue of gun control without being asked about it by anyone of the handful of people in attendance.
“There’s been a lot of information put out there about the Second Amendment and how I am going to take people’s guns and all this,” Bollier told the audience. “I want to be clear. I support the Second Amendment.”
Bollier called for background checks for gun purchases and training for carrying concealed weapons, a requirement the Legislature removed several years ago.
“Who thinks you can just go out and have a gun? Seriously,” she said. “You can’t drive a car without training. You can’t basically do anything without some kind of training.”
Bollier said she didn’t know whether firearm training should be required at the federal or state level, saying she’s generally thinks it’s best to leave decisions to the governments closest to the voters.
The Marshall campaign on Sunday, later joined by the National Rifle Association, criticized Bollier’s comments about Australia, saying she wanted to confiscate guns.
“This may sound good to Bollier’s donors in San Francisco, but to Kansans, this is disqualifying,” Marshall campaign manager Eric Pahls said Sunday.
“Even among Democrats, forced gun confiscation is an alarming concept. The more Bollier goes off of her carefully-scripted talking points, the more she exposes herself for the radical leftist that she is.”
Pahls followed that up on Monday saying that it was no coincidence Bollier released her fundraising numbers a day after her gun comments started circulating broadly.
“She’s trying to tell her Democrat big money bosses in D.C. and California that she’s still relevant,” Pahls said.
Late Sunday, the NRA tweeted out a video of Bollier’s comments made at the event.
“EXPOSED: During an event last weekend, #Kansas Democrat candidate @BarbaraBollier came out supporting Australian-style gun confiscation, calling it ‘an amazing thing.’ They are not even trying to hide it anymore!”
This may be a pivotal moment for the Bollier campaign in its historic drive to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas since 1932.
While the confusion over the Patriot Act and the gun comments could throw Bollier off stride, the massive sums of money coming into her campaign can help her fight back against messaging from the Republicans.
“The two things that have happened to her that are being used by Republicans don’t help her, but she’s got a real big cushion there with the money,” said Washburn University political scientist Bob Beatty.
“She’s got the money to change the conversation,” Beatty said.
Republican consultant David Kensinger said the gun comments help feed the narrative that Bollier isn’t as moderate as she claims.
“This is the time in a campaign when a gaffe can really take momentum from one side and give it to the other,” Kensinger said.
“This is the brightest light she’s ever been under, and she doesn’t seem to be performing too well,” he said.
Bollier spokeswoman Alexandra De Luca said the Marshall campaign is exaggerating Bollier’s comments because they know the Democrat has the momentum.
“It’s why they’re pushing misleading videos, outright lies and deceptive attacks,” De Luca said.
“Kansans across the state want an independent voice who will stand up and fight for them, not a political party in Washington, and that’s why they’re going to elect Barbara Bollier this November.”
