After witnessing a non-presidential election cycle with $154 million earmarked for election litigation to the major political parties, I expected to see continuing climbing figures. Not so fast. The 6-month figures are in, and a mere (?) $22.6 million was raised. That’s down from more than $41 million in the first six months of 2021-22, but up from $13 million in the first six months of 2019-20 (also a presidential cycle).

That’s a bit deceptive, because the DNC pulled in a whopping $17 million in those first six months of 2021. I haven’t tracked down the source for this (but some enterprising reader might be inclined to do so!), but I wonder if some combination of January 6 plus election law challenges in states like Texas and Georgia in early 2021 prompted a flurry of fundraising that we’re just not seeing matched this cycle.

Here are the totals so far.

DNC: $2,642,455

RNC: $3,320,230

DSCC: $3,012,092

NRSC: $3,930,690

DCCC: $3,783,660

NRCC: $5,991,082

Democratic National Party Totals: $9,438,207

Republican National Party Totals: $13,242,002

(Other: $305)

Grand Total: $22,680,514

Republicans lead Democrats, unlike last cycle where Republicans were playing catch-up. It’s possible some of the lackluster DNC fundraising relates to joint fundraising committee decisions from the Biden campaign (which has also had tepid fundraising overall), which puts earmarking funds for the “recount” and related funds at the bottom of the priority for the distribution of fundraising. Or other factors are at play. We’ll see how the cycle proceeds.