Donations flow in as Newhouse, Sessler enter final stretch of congressional race

Three candidates running for Washington's 4th Congressional District raised a half-million dollars in campaign contributions this past quarter, new FEC filings show .

Republican Dan Newhouse , Republican Jerrod Sessler and Democrat Cherissa Boyd collectively took home more than $515,000 between July and September, and spent nearly $610,000 on TV and radio ads, mailers, polling and research.

The spending marks a final sprint to the Nov. 5 general election, where Newhouse and Sessler will face off in Republican-on-Republican fashion. Boyd is mounting a long shot write-in campaign that has gained little traction outside of local news.

Newhouse bore a majority of the fundraising and spending. The Sunnyside farmer led the cash race with $452,000 raised . He spent about $520,000 and ended the quarter with $577,000 in cash on hand and nearly $11,000 in debts and obligations.

His campaign declined to comment on current fundraising efforts.

Meanwhile, Sessler, the former regional NASCAR circuit driver and Navy veteran, raised $63,000 and spent $85,000 . But he ends the quarter with a cushy $287,000 in cash on hand thanks to a consortium of personal loans he's given his campaign .

Sessler loaned his campaign $351,000 in 2021 , while also earmarking more than $123,000 in debt owed to himself personally. Those numbers haven't changed as of the most recent FEC filings.

Matt Brown, Sessler's campaign manager, says he doesn't expect Newhouse's fundraising to save him "from the unemployment line this November."

"Our campaign is hitting hundreds of doors every day and the response has been overwhelming," he wrote in an email.

"Republicans want to be represented by a Republican, not someone who voted to impeach President Trump and whose only accomplishment is increasing his personal wealth from $2 million to $19 million while trading stocks of companies he regulates," Brown continued.

Sessler received various individual donations this past quarter from farmers, fruit growers, retirees and business owners.

Democratic write-in struggles to find footing

Boyd and her campaign manager, Richard Reuther, have loaned their operation nearly $5,000 and raised $635 through their own personal contributions.

Her campaign reported just $674 in cash on hand at the end of September.

"Basically, we're just throwing our own money at it," Reuther said.

A few individual donations have flowed in since they filed their quarterly report on Oct. 3, they say, but they're focused more on building grassroots support.

Their phone calls to the Washington State Democratic Party requesting financial backing have gone unanswered, Reuther adds.

Much to the chagrin of those in her own party, the Kennewick mother filed to run as a write-in candidate on Aug. 21 after three Democrats failed to make it through Washington's August jungle primary election.

The Nov. 5 general election ballot will feature only Newhouse and Sessler. Instead of reluctantly backing Newhouse, Boyd argues progressives should instead write in her name on their ballots.

"They don't understand that my votes are my votes, Sessler's are Sessler's and Newhouse's is his," Boyd told the Herald, adding that Central Washington supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat's nominee for president, should also back her.

But finding support from local Democrats has also been an uphill battle.

Former congressional candidate Doug White, a Democrat from Yakima, contrasted Newhouse's and Sessler's candidacies in a Friday op-ed . He dismissed the idea that Central Washington progressives would be voting for the "lesser of two evils" by supporting Newhouse, calling Sessler "genuinely dangerous."

"His desire for power, reliance on falsehoods, and ignorance of politics, governance, and the very communities he seeks to represent make him unfit for office," White wrote. "This Democrat will be voting for Newhouse and, once again, Democrats will save Republicans from themselves and keep the wheels of democracy turning."

A battle over Central Washington

Sessler also came under fire this week for comments he made about Muslims serving in Congress .

"There is no way that a devout Muslim should be in Congress, because they can't take the oath of office," Sessler told the Yakima Herald-Republic . "Their fundamental belief system is anti-American."

He points to passages in the Quran that calls for killing non-Muslims, but the Herald-Republic notes those excerpts have generally been misinterpreted.

"I would still treat (a Muslim representative) with dignity because there might be something I need," Sessler told the paper.

Sessler is running to oust Newhouse over his 2021 vote to impeach former President Donald Trump for fomenting the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol building. The insurrection resulted in the deaths of five people that day .

Newhouse is running for a sixth term in the U.S. Congress, highlighting his past work combatting the opioid and fentanyl epidemics, advocating for an increase in the cleanup budget at the Hanford Site, and reforming the nation's farm workforce.

In addition to their own $5,000 donation, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also known as AIPAC, earmarked $28,500 worth of political donations to Newhouse's reelection campaign this past quarter.

The Sunnyside Republican also received several high-dollar donations from notable companies, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and BlackRock.

Washington's 4th Congressional District stretches from the U.S.-Canada border down to the Columbia River, and includes the Tri-Cities, Omak, East Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Yakima and the Yakama Indian Reservation.

It is the state's most Republican-leaning congressional district.