North Dakota Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp has announced a stunning fundraising haul.
Heitkamp raised $1.6 million so far in 2017, Politico reports, giving her more than $2 million of funds ahead of her re-election campaign in 2018. The early donations broke records for the state of North Dakota.
The record for quarterly totals for a candidate in North Dakota was previously held by Republican Sen. John Hoeven, who brought in $1.39 million in a quarter, but that was months before an election.
Heitkamp is set to run in a state that President Donald Trump carried with a 36 percent lead, and she’s the only Democrat to be elected to statewide office since 2008, according to Politico.
The strong early showing already makes up a significant fraction of the $5.6 million she raised during her 2012 election, which was the first year the Tea Party became an official force in the electoral process.
Heitkamp’s win was narrow in 2012. She was outspent by nearly a million dollars, and won the race with a 1 percent lead. As a result, she’s maintained a somewhat moderate stance since Trump took office.
The red-state Democrat called for an up or down vote on Trump appointee to the Supreme Court, and joined a group of pro-life Democrats to stand against the party’s inclusion of abortion in the official platform back in July of 2016.
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