Mia Love is defying the odds with her fundraising ahead of 2014.
The Huffington Post says most Congressional challengers are having trouble raising money this cycle, but not Love who pulled in $592,356 to Democrat Jim Matheson’s $278,541.
The difficulty of fundraising as a non-incumbent is on full display in the third-quarter fundraising reports released on Oct. 15. Just 13 challengers to House incumbents raised more money from July through September without dipping into their own pockets. The victorious fundraising challengers to opposite-party incumbents are evenly split between five Democrats and five Republicans, while two Democrats and one Republican mounting primary challenges out-raised the incumbents they face.
In the past decade, incumbents have increased their fundraising advantage over challengers. The trend toward heavy incumbent fundraising began as competition for control of the House in the 1990s and has spiraled upward as party leadership has increased pressure on incumbents to raise money for party committees and candidates in swing districts.
