Capito raises $1.3M in her best quarter yet

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) posted her best fundraising quarter yet, bringing in over $1.3 million for her Senate bid and nearly doubling the haul of her Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant.

Capito’s campaign said Wednesday she ended June with nearly $5 million cash on hand and has raised $7.1 million for the cycle overall, with contributions from all 55 counties in West Virginia

{mosads}Tennant’s campaign said she raised about $777,000 from April through June, but did not announce her cash on hand. She, too, has received contributions from all of West Virginia’s counties, and has raised about $2.4 million since entering the race in September.

While Tennant’s campaign noted her sum is on par with what Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) raised for the second quarter in 2012 — two lawmakers whose campaigns Tennant hopes to emulate — it marks a slight slowdown from her first-quarter haul, when she raised nearly $800,000.

Capito’s sum, by contrast, marks a significant uptick in fundraising. In the first quarter, she nearly matched Tennant, bringing in $817,000.

While Democrats are hopeful that Tennant can make the race for retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) seat competitive, Capito has led in every poll, and the political terrain of the deep-red state favors the Republican.