Gubernatorial frontrunners falling further behind on the campaign finance front …

Democratic operatives in South Carolina are privately fretting what appears to be a total collapse of their fundraising efforts ahead of the 2022 election – one that has been totally ignored by the mainstream media in the Palmetto State.

“We’re seeing a complete collapse of South Carolina Dems and fundraising,” one Upstate party leader told me this week, confessing to being “a little surprised no one has done a story yet.”

While I am not at all surprised by the lack of coverage on this issue from the left-leaning mainstream media, I was shocked to see just how anemic the Democratic fundraising totals actually were.

During the fourth quarter of 2021 – which began on October 1 and ended on December 31 – Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Joe Cunningham raised a total of $342,546.67. That’s not necessary a bad haul, but Cunningham also spent $428,738.72 during the same quarter. As a result, his “cash-on-hand” – or the current balance of his campaign account – fell from $508,113.15 to just $421,921.20.

By contrast, incumbent “Republican” Henry McMaster – who has yet to draw a credible opponent in the GOP primary election – raised $908,736.43 during the the fourth quarter. Beyond bringing in nearly three times as much as Cunningham, McMaster also spent less than the Democratic frontrunner: Parting with only $330,577.96 of his war chest during the final three months of the year.

Thanks to those numbers, McMaster’s cash-on-hand soared from $2,378,814.46 to $2,956,972.93.

The incumbent “Republican” entered the fourth quarter with a 4-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage over Cunningham. Thank to his fourth quarter haul (and his top rival’s weak showing), McMaster entered the first quarter of 2022 with a 7-to-1 edge.

Cunningham wasn’t the only Democrat who gave up ground on the money front during the fourth quarter of 2021. S.C. senator Mia McLeod raised $83,809.29 for her 2022 bid between October and December but spent $109,921.98. As a result, she saw her cash on hand decline from $141,018.80 to $114,906.11.

The fundraising numbers for Cunningham and McLeod aren’t just terrible omens for their party – they are being posted at a time when both candidates desperately needed to be building up their bank accounts for the upcoming primary and general election battles.

“This is when you are supposed to be raising money, not burning it,” one GOP strategist told me.

Instead of amassing war chests, though, both top-tier Democratic candidates are depleting their campaign accounts …

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Poster Comment:

Hopefully and undoubtedly this spells doom for Dummacrat politics at large here. But please, Henry McMaster again? He clearly can't be trusted re the Covidiocy despite having proven far less insane than some other governors..... so far.