Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Mia Love raised more than $440,000 in her first three months in Congress, according to the newest batch of fundraising reports filed by Utah's congressional delegation with the Federal Election Commission.
Love, Utah's newest member of Congress, raised $300,000 of that money from individual contributions, according to her latest quarterly report filed this week. The rest of her contributions came from political action committees.
During that same period from January through March, Love spent $259,000 and had $473,000 left over.
To win her seat in Utah's 4th Congressional District last November, Love spent more than $5 million. She defeated Democrat Doug Owens, a political newcomer who joined the race more than half a year after Love and never caught up to her fundraising lead.
Owens has said he's considering challenging Love again in 2016. But he has closed his campaign account and hasn't reported raising any money this year. Owens and any other challengers have until March 2016 to enter the race.
Sen. Mike Lee, facing his first re-election battle in 2016, collected $751,000 from January through March. Lee was elected in 2010, defeating longtime U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett for the Republican nomination. Lee has announced a team helping him with his re-election, but he hasn't formally kicked off his campaign.
No Republican primary challengers or Democratic candidates have announced they intend to challenge Lee.
Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon said this week that the party wasn't ready to say who might jump into the race.
About $617,000 of the money Lee raised in the first quarter of 2015 came from individual donors and the rest from political action committees. The Republican senator spent more than $355,000. He has about $763,000 going forward in case a challenger emerges next year.
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch raised $189,000 from January through March. He spent about $39,000, leaving about $947,000 in his campaign fund.
Hatch said in 2012 that didn't plan to run again. But in a late 2014 interview with KSL Newsradio, he said he would consider a 2018 campaign if he was in the middle of legislation to overhaul he federal tax code, a priority of his.
Updated reports were available from Utah's three other Republican congressional delegates Friday:
— In the 1st Congressional District, Rep. Rob Bishop raised $167,000 from January through March. About half of that came from political action committees and half from individual contributions. Bishop spent $46,000, leaving about $167,000 in his campaign account.
— In the 2nd Congressional District, Republican Rep. Chris Stewart raised $71,000 and spent about $50,000. He had about $152,000 left over in his campaign account at the end of March.
— In the 3rd Congressional District, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz raised about $151,000, with about $98,000 of that from political action committees. Chaffetz spent more than $131,000 and had about $329,000 left over.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
