Updated: 12:04 p.m., Monday, April 5, 2021
Nina Turner has raised a total of $2.2 million so far for her bid to succeed Marcia Fudge in Congress, while another leading candidate, Shontel Brown, has brought in $680,000.
Most of Turner’s funding – about $1.5 million – has come in since January, and the campaign reportedly has $1 million on hand as the race heads toward an Aug. 3 special primary. Brown raised most of her money in the first quarter of this year.
Both campaigns made the announcement ahead of the April 15 deadline to file fundraising disclosures with the Federal Elections Commission.
Turner, a former state senator and Cleveland City Council member, has developed a national profile as a leading Bernie Sanders supporter, and the campaign has pulled in donations from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., with California as the top contributing state, followed by Ohio.
According to the campaign, Turner also has received contributions from every ZIP code in the 11th Congressional District, which reaches from Cleveland to Akron.
“Our campaign does not take lightly the donations that are coming in, especially on the grassroots side,” Turner told reporters on a conference call, “and the sacrifices, particularly in this moment of COVID-19, that people are making to turbo boost this campaign.”
Turner called the Biden administration’s COVID-19 relief and infrastructure plans “a good start,” on the call, saying she would push in Congress to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Brown, a county council member and chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, has collected endorsements from many local elected Democrats and construction labor unions. More than half of her contributions have come from Northeast Ohio, according to the campaign.
“I am grateful to the thousands of people who have contributed to our campaign,” Brown said in a news release, highlighting her support for Wi-Fi hotspots for students and for declaring racism a public health crisis. “I am running for Congress to lead Northeast Ohio’s economic recovery -- and to partner with the Biden administration to get it done.”
Fudge’s appointment to be President Joe Biden’s secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has left the race wide open, and several well-known Northeast Ohio Democrats have launched bids for her seat.
Turner last week announced endorsements from Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin.
