3rd District Republican John Curtis is in good financial shape as he gears up for his third election in as many years. Curtis reported $107,802 in donations to his re-election campaign from April to June of this year.
$70,000, which represents the majority of campaign cash donated to Curtis during Q2, came from political action committees. The remaining $37,800 was from 58 individual donors.
Curiously, only 6 of the donors from Q2 called Utah home. Collectively, those 6 donated just $6,500. The majority of the remaining 52 donors to Curtis were from a fundraiser Curtis held in California with pro-Israel donors.
Curtis campaign spokesperson Adrielle Herring says Curtis has pulled back from campaign mode a bit recently, which is the reason for the dearth of home-state donors.
“It’s challenging to run an aggressive campaign and also be an effective Congressman. So in 2019, he decided to shut down the campaign for a bit to focus entirely on representing Utah. “Fundraising efforts will pick up as election season gets going,” she said in an email to UtahPolicy.com.
Curtis won election to the House in November 2017 after Rep. Jason Chaffetz suddenly resigned. He immediately was up for re-election the following year. He filed paperwork for his second re-election bid in May of this year. So far, Curtis has not drawn a Democratic or Republican challenger for the 2020 election.
Some of the PACs that contributed to Curtis’ re-election bid include the “Tuesday Group” which is an informal group of moderate Republicans formed in 1994 to counterbalance the conservative wing of the Republican caucus. The group, of which Curtis is a member, donated $2,000 to Curtis during the most recent quarter. The Tuesday Group PAC has given $7,000 to Curtis so far during the 2020 election cycle.
Curtis also reeled in $10,000 from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s PAC during the 2nd quarter. McCarthy donated $20,000 to Curtis during the 2018 election. He also gave $10,000 to Rep. Rob Bishop, Rep. Chris Stewart and former Rep. Mia Love ahead of last year’s election.
Curtis loaned his campaign $100,000 when he initially ran for Congress in the 2017 special election to replace Chaffetz. The most recent report shows $75,000 of that loan has been retired.
