a financial blastoff
Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly is crushing GOP Sen. Martha McSally in future ad buys
Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) narrowly lost her 2018 Senate race to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D), but was nominated to fill Arizona's other Senate seat shortly after. And by the looks of Democrat Mark Kelly's fundraising and polling numbers, it looks like McSally might suffer an even bigger loss this time around.
The most recent poll of Arizona's Senate race, released Tuesday by Civiqs, gave Kelly a nine-point advantage over McSally. It was run by the left-wing news site The Daily Kos, but Fox News' poll released June 3 gave Kelly a 13-point lead. And as CBS News' Alexander Tin reported Wednesday via Kantar ad tracking, Kelly has bought nearly $10 million in future ad reservations while McSally has reserved $0 worth.
Both candidates have do outside groups buying ads on their behalf, Tin noted. Still, considering that Kelly closed out the first fundraising quarter of 2020 with double the cash raised and on hand as McSally, it all left The New York Times' national political correspondent Alex Burns wondering if any political newcomer had ever been as "financially dominant" as Kelly. Kathryn Krawczyk