Big Sky Times

In his latest bid to move out of Helena and on to Washington D.C., Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock's U.S. Senate campaign has raised $26.8 million in the third quarter of 2020, setting a fundraising record for a state with just over 1 million residents.

Bullock is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Steve Daines, the latest bid for the national stage by Bullock, who also made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for president, which he aborted late last year.

In December, when Bullock suspended his presidential campaign, he said he would not challenge Daines in the coming election, according to an article published by CNN. 

"Gov. Bullock will continue to faithfully and effectively serve the people of Montana as their governor," Bullock spokeswoman Galia Slayen was quoted as saying by CNN. "While he plans to work hard to elect Democrats in the state and across the country in 2020, it will be in his capacity as a governor and a senior voice in the Democratic Party – not as a candidate for U.S. Senate."

Notably, during Bullock’s entire failed presidential bid spanning more than half of 2019, he was only able to raise $4.3 million, something that CNN said played into the failure of his campaign.

Bullock’s campaign’s official says 96% of the contributions that led to the $26.8 million windfall came from donations of less than $200, according to coverage by The Hill. However, his campaign did not specify what percentage of the $26.8 million was accounted for from the other 4% of donations.

At the same time, The Mercury News reported that political groups independent of the campaigns have already spent an estimated $118 million on the contest between Daines and Bullock. Another $22 million was expected to be spent by those groups in the final weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3.

With only 729,000 registered voters in the entire state, The Mercury News estimated that the per-voter expenditure between special-interest groups and campaigns will amount to $184.