Nina Turner raises $1.6 million in first quarter for Ohio congressional bid

Ohio Democrat Nina Turner pulled in nearly $1.6 million for her congressional campaign in the first quarter of 2021, giving her a massive fundraising advantage over her rivals in the primary for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge’s former House seat.

Turner’s first-quarter fundraising haul means that she has raised more than $2.2 million since she launched her House bid in early December. Her campaign will report more than $1 million in cash on hand when it files its first-quarter finance report with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) later this month. 

Turner, a former Ohio state senator and the president of the progressive group Our Revolution, is one of seven Democrats seeking the party’s nomination to replace Fudge, who formally stepped down from her House seat last month after she was confirmed as President Biden’s Housing and Urban Development secretary.

Other Democrats in the race include Cuyahoga County councilwoman and county Democratic Party chair Shontel Brown, former state Reps. John Barnes Jr. and Bryan Flannery, former state Sens. Jeff Johnson and Shirley Smith, and Navy veteran Tariq Shabazz. 

They will compete in an Aug. 3 primary to determine the nominee ahead of a Nov. 2 special election in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. 

Brown’s campaign announced on Monday that she had raised $640,000 in the first three months of 2021, bringing her total raised to $680,000 since late December.

Ohio’s 11th district, which stretches from Cleveland to Akron, is a solidly Democratic district, meaning that the winner of the party’s August primary will most likely go on to win Fudge’s seat in November. 

A Republican hasn’t represented the district in nearly four decades, and Fudge coasted to reelection last year, defeating Republican Laverne Gore by a 60-point margin. Gore is running for the seat once again.