Jesse Colvin, the Democratic nominee in the 1st congressional district, has raised an eye-popping amount of money but is still the underdog against U.S. Rep. Andrew P. Harris. Colvin campaign photo
Democrat Jesse Colvin has gotten a big financial boost in his effort to oust Republican incumbent Rep. Andrew P. Harris in Maryland’s 1st District -- pulling in more than $883,000 in the third quarter of the year, with help from Washington, D.C., and Maryland Democratic insiders as well as a few Republican friends.
The latest campaign finance disclosure reports, filed late Monday at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), showed Colvin outraising Harris by more than 3-1 -- as the incumbent reported taking in just $254,000 for the period from July 1 to Sept. 30. Colvin’s latest numbers allowed him to pass Harris for the entire 2017-2018 election cycle: Over the past 21 months, he has raised nearly $1.575 million, $75,000 above the $1.5 million taken in by Harris.
Thanks to fundraising from prior election cycles, Harris -- first elected in 2010 -- still had a big lead in cash on hand as of Oct. 1, with close to $1.4 million in his campaign treasury. But Colvin was able to significantly narrow the gap, reporting a little more than $750,000 as of the end of the third quarter. That was up sharply from the $188,000 he had on hand three months earlier, when his campaign war chest had been drained in winning a six-way June 26 primary in the expansive district, which stretches across 12 counties from Baltimore’s northwestern suburbs to the southern edge of the Eastern Shore.
