Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) outraised Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) in the second quarter of the year by more than half a million dollars, his campaign announced Monday.
{mosads}Cotton brought in $2.28 million from April through the end of June, while Pryor raised just $1.5 million. Pryor had $4.1 million cash on hand at the end of the last quarter, but Cotton hasn’t yet released his cash on hand numbers, potentially an indication he’s burning cash at a quick pace.
But this continues a troubling trend for the Democrat, who faces the toughest reelection fight of his career against Cotton, a top GOP recruit for the seat. Cotton has outraised Pryor for four consecutive fundraising quarters.
Polling has shown the two locked in a tight race, with the last four surveys giving a slight lead to Cotton.
Cotton’s campaign touted the fact that he raised $833,000 from donations of $200 or less as evidence of his strong grassroots support. Cotton spokesman David Ray said the strong fundraising quarter would help the campaign continue to knock Pryor for his ties to Obama, who remains unpopular in the state.
“Our continued fundraising strength will allow us to highlight Sen. Pryor’s lockstep support for President Obama’s agenda, including his votes for ObamaCare, bailouts, and other job-killing policies,” Ray said.
But Pryor’s campaign hit back, with spokesman Erik Dorey knocking Cotton for his “troubled candidacy.”
“Frankly, we’re surprised it took this long for someone as ambitious as Congressman Cotton to rally his out-of-state billionaires behind his otherwise troubled candidacy,” he said. “Last month, Cotton skipped arguably the most important annual festival for his congressional district in order to glad-hand with the Koch brothers in California luxury. Cotton hasn’t shown he cares much for Arkansans. Just look at his votes against affordable student loans, disaster aid and equal pay for women.”
Updated at 1 p.m. with comment from Pryor’s campaign.