Progressive Nina Turner’s congressional campaign announced Monday that it brought in a nearly $2.2 million haul since the Ohio Democrat launched her candidacy in December, including $1.55 million in the first quarter of 2021.
The former Ohio state senator and 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign co-chair is running for Ohio’s 11th congressional district; the seat was vacated by Rep. Marcia Fudge, who now serves as President Joe Biden’s Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary.
Turner announced her campaign late last year and has since won endorsements from groups including Justice Democrats and Sunrise Movement Cleveland and federal lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
According to The Washington Post, the campaign cash shows Turner “far outpacing rivals in the special primary for a safe Democratic congressional seat in Cleveland.”
Among Turner’s competitors is Cuyahoga County councilwoman and chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Shontel Brown, who, by contrast, raised just $680,000 overall in campaign funds—$640,000 of which came in the first quarter.
Other veterans of the Sanders presidential campaign, including Anna Bahr and Winnie Wong, team celebrated the announcement.
“You absolutely love to see it,” tweeted Wong.
The Turner campaign says it’s received 77,578 individual contributions from every state, including Ohio, and from all the zip codes in the 11th district. The average donation in the first quarter was $28.
“Momentum is building and people can feel it!” Marisa Nahem, press secretary for the congressional campaign, said in a Twitter thread that noted the campaign takes no corporate PAC money.
Deputy campaign manager Kara Turrentine said the figures reflected a “truly people-powered campaign.”
Turner’s progressive platform includes Medicare for All, a Green New deal, cancellation of student debt, and an end to for-profit prisons and immigrant detention centers.
The primary for the special election to fill Fudge’s seat is set for Aug. 3, 2021.
