Walker raised $5.5 million over 6 months for re-election, while no Democrat has reported raising more than $840,000

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker raised nearly $5.5 million over the past six months for his re-election campaign and has nearly $6 million cash on hand, easily outpacing the field of eight Democratic challengers.

But Walker’s numbers were down from what he collected over the same period in 2014, when he was last up for re-election. His campaign emphasized that when combined with money raised by the Wisconsin Republican Party and running mate Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Walker’s team had more money now than then — $8.6 million compared to $8.4 million.

“We’ve built a strong campaign, and our grassroots army will be critical to fighting off the big government special interests and enacting our positive agenda to help Wisconsin win the 21st century,” Walker said in a statement.

At this point in 2014, Walker raised nearly $8.3 million over six months and had $7.6 million cash on hand — compared with $5.5 million raised and $6 million cash on hand this year.

Since January 2017 Walker has raised about $12.6 million.

No Democratic candidate has yet to report raising more than $840,000 on the campaign so far. Reports were due by midnight Monday but not every candidate had filed them by later afternoon. The fundraising totals provide a measurement for how the campaigns are doing. Cash on hand is a critical number, especially for the relatively unknown Democratic field, as they try to raise their profiles and sway voters with television ads in the final month leading up to the Aug. 14 primary.

Five Democratic candidates reported highlights from their reports, which were not yet on file:

• State firefighter union leader Mahlon Mitchell said he raised $840,000 to date, but didn’t say how much cash he had.
• Former state Rep. Kelda Roys said she raised about $800,000 and had $650,000 cash on hand.
• Former Democratic Party leader Matt Flynn said he’s raised nearly $688,000 and has $403,000 cash on hand.
• Political activist Mike McCabe said he’s raised roughly $261,000 but has only $68,000 cash on hand.
• Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said he’s raised $116,000 and has about $58,000 cash on hand.