As Harder’s contributions hit milestone, Congressman’s opponents begin to emerge
U.S. Rep. Josh Harder has raised nearly $2 million in the first half of this year and has about $5 million in campaign cash as he seeks his third term in the November 2022 election.
Harder, D-Turlock, raised $1.09 million during the first three months of this year, according to the Federal Election Commission’s website, and then $900,006 from April through June, according to information provided by his campaign Wednesday.
The campaign reported Harder had $5.04 million on hand for his re-election to represent California’s 10th Congressional District, which encompasses Stanislaus and southern San Joaquin counties.
So far he is not facing a challenger who has raised a significant amount of money, according to the FEC website. The website lists two challengers: Democrat Michael Barkley and Republican Simon Aslanpour.
Barkley reported having nearly $453 on hand as of March 31, and Aslanpour did not report raising any money as of June 30. (The information on the FEC website was of Wednesday. Thursday is the deadline for reporting campaign fundraising through June 30.)
But a Harder campaign spokesman said the National Republican Congressional Committee has targeted Harder’s seat as one that Republicans hope to retake in 2022. The spokesman said the Harder campaign expects a well-funded opponent to emerge.
Barkley has been a candidate for the CA10 seat since 2012, but he has not advanced beyond the primary elections. His best showing was in 2014 when he received 14.7% of the primary vote. He received 3.5% of the vote in 2020 primary. But he said in a phone interview he does not expect to be on the ballot because of the cost, roughly $10,000 for the candidate statements and fee.
Aslanpour owns Blooming Bouquet Florist in San Jose but said in a phone interview that he moved to Turlock during the pandemic and splits his time between there and San Jose. He said he not yet started raising money for his campaign.
The FEC website states that Jeff Denham — the Republican incumbent whom Harder defeated in 2018 — reported receiving $1,000 in contributions. But Denham said in an email he did not deposit them and is not running for his old congressional seat. Denham is a government affairs counselor with the global law firm K&L Gates, according to the firm’s website.
The Harder campaign spokesman said in an email that “the most important stat for us is grassroots donations: the teachers, nurses and truck drivers who donate a few bucks to Josh’s campaign when they can. This quarter (April 1 through June 30), 92% of our contributions were grassroots (less than $200). “... This cycle (since Josh won in 2020), 92% of our contributions were also grassroots. ...”
But the FEC website shows that during the first quarter of this year about 70% the money Harder raised came from donors who gave at least $2,000 each. Information for the second quarter was not available Wednesday on the FEC website.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
