Kingston is Lapping the Field in GA-1 – Tops $1M

A finance memo that the Kingston campaign sent to supporters on July 18 laid out their first three weeks on the trail. It said Jim Kingston raised $869,705 in 21 days, with more than 80 percent of contributions coming from inside Georgia, including from every county in the district, and 40 percent from first-time federal donors. The memo’s summary line was blunt: Kingston was leading the field by large margins.

If you are wondering what a “finance memo” is, it is basically a snapshot the campaign circulates to show early strength. This one included a chart of the Republican field that distinguished money raised from loans to self.

Since that memo, the campaign tells me they have now passed the $1,000,000 mark in total contributions. That is a real milestone this early and it tracks with what the memo suggested about breadth and speed of support.

Turning our attention to the candidate who came in second place shows just how strong Kingston’s fundraising has been to this point. I will point out in full transparency that I do not know Pat Farrell and what his views are on various issues of the day. This is a post about fundraising though, not an endorsement or criticism of any particular candidate. In other words, this ain’t personal.

But the mix of contributions and where they come from matters. Pat Farrell loaned his campaign $250,000, reported total donations of $276,651.00, and now has less than $250,000 cash on hand. In plain English, most of his early fuel is the personal loan, not donor growth. The memo’s chart flagged that loan-heavy profile at the time, too.

Why this matters

• Kingston’s first 21 days were broad based, not just a few big checks, which points to a donor file you can build on.
• Crossing $1 million this fast signals staying power. That kind of pace funds field operations, media buys, and sustains the campaign through the grind of a long race.
• If your cash on hand is already below your own loan, you are spending into the cushion without matching grassroots fuel. That tends to show up later when it is time to scale.

And we would not be telling the whole story if we didn’t mention the other two candidates in the race: Kandiss Taylor and Krista Penn. The only point I will make about either candidate here is that neither of them have over $5,000 cash on hand. We have Bryan County Commission Chairman, Carter Infinger, on our tracker but he did not file a disclosure and may have taken one look at Kingston’s numbers and decided to sit this one out.

We will keep watching the filings as they post and we will dig into the next round when it hits.