Facing tough election campaign in new congressional district, Moskowitz raises big campaign money

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat facing a tough path to winning reelection in a newly crafted, toss-up district, has turned into a fundraising powerhouse.

Moskowitz raised more in the latest fundraising quarter than any other Democratic or Republican incumbent or challenger in South Florida, newly filed campaign reports show.

He took in $947,000 during April, May and June — far more than he reported on any of the 16 previous quarterly reports since he first ran for Congress in 2022.

The only Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach county candidates who reported taking in more cash in the quarter are wealthy candidates who are pouring millions of dollars of their own money into their efforts to get to Congress.

Seeking his third term in the U.S. House, Moskowitz is a former Florida state legislator and Parkland city commissioner, has been an appointed county and state official, and comes from a political family. His background gives him a longstanding network of connections to people who can give campaign contributions.

Moskowitz hasn’t always been a top fundraiser, but this spring was different. He averaged $10,400 every day for the 91 days in the second quarter.

Republicans think they can defeat the Democratic nominee — most of them assume it will be Moskowitz — in November. The election in the 25th Congressional District, which runs along the Atlantic coast from Delray Beach to Miami Beach, is seen by all major independent congressional election analysts as a toss-up that could go either way.

That means the general election contest that emerges from the Aug. 18 Democratic and Republican primaries will be expensive. The district includes the Miami-Fort Lauderdale television market, one of the most expensive in the country, plus the West Palm Beach-Treasure Coast market.

Already national Democratic and Republican super PACs affiliated with both parties’ congressional leaders have reserved millions of dollars of TV advertising time in South Florida.

Moskowitz’s spending was relatively modest from April 1 through June 30. That suggests he isn’t overly concerned about Oliver Larkin, his opponent in the Democratic primary, and is conserving resources for a fall campaign.

To be sure, the candidates who want to unseat Moskowitz aren’t in the political poorhouse. Campaign reports for the quarter ended June 30, which were due at the Federal Election Commission by midnight Wednesday and later posted online, show mixed results for the candidates.

And money doesn’t guarantee how a candidate will perform. For his 2024 reelection campaign in a different district, Moskowitz spent $1.2 million and received 52.4% of the vote. Republican nominee Joe Kaufman, who is running again this year, reported spending $102,000 and received 47.6% of the vote.

Republicans

Five Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination.

Scott Singer, the former mayor of Boca Raton, raised more than the other Republicans and was by far the biggest spender.

Singer spent 40% more than all the other candidates combined.

He took in $497,000 in the quarter. He also loaned $150,000 of his own money to the campaign.

Singer started the quarter with $1.2 million in cash in his campaign account. He spent $921,000 over the three months. With the money he raised and loaned to his campaign, he reported $958,000 in his campaign account on June 30.

More than half of Singer’s cash balance represents $574,000 of his own money he has lent to his campaign since it started.

After the first quarter, Singer had $14,000 more cash in his campaign account than Moskowitz and boasted in a news release that he was “thrilled to announce” that “our campaign has more cash on hand than the sitting Congressman!”

After the second quarter, Moskowitz had $931,000 more cash on hand than Singer.

George Moraitis, a former four-term state representative from Fort Lauderdale and a past chair of the Broward Republican Party, lagged in fundraising, bringing in $141,000 during the quarter.

At the beginning of the quarter, Moraitis had $484,000 in cash in his campaign account. He spent $93,000 and had $532,000 on June 30.

Earlier in the campaign, Moraitis loaned his campaign $110,000.

Joe Kaufman, a counterterrorism researcher, writer and lecturer, has been an unsuccessful Republican primary or general election candidate in different congressional districts in 2024, 2018, 2016, 2014 and 2012.

Kaufman raised $150,000 in the quarter. On April 1, he had $462,000 in his campaign account and spent $84,000 during the quarter. On June 30, he had $527,000 in his campaign account. (He also reported the campaign had $90,000 in outstanding debts and was owed $50,000.)

Dan Franzese raised $39,000 in the quarter — but he loaned $1 million of his own money to his campaign.

Franzese, who has a background in the financial industry, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel in Palm Beach County in 2022 and 2024. He had originally planned to run against Frankel again, but switched to the newly crafted 25th District after it was created.

At the beginning of the quarter, he had $384,000 cash in his campaign account. He spent $314,000 over the three months.

As of June 30, Franzese reported $1.1 million in cash in his campaign account. In addition to the most recent $1 million loan, earlier in the campaign he loaned $250,000 to the effort.

Raven Harrison, another Republican, received 5.5% of the vote in a Texas congressional primary 2022, finishing last in a five-candidate race.

She raised $77,000 in the quarter.

Harrison had $176,000 on April 1, spent $141,000 during the ensuing three months, and had a final cash balance of $112,000 on June 30. Harrison has lent her campaign operation a total of $292,000 of her own money, reports show.

Democrats

Democratic candidate Oliver Larkin is a Democratic Socialist who comes from the party’s progressive wing and cut his political teeth as a volunteer and eventually as a paid staffer on U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign.

Larkin raised $214,000 from April 1 through June 30.

He started the quarter with $183,000 and ended with a campaign bank balance of $193,000. He reported no debt.

The two Democrats tapped different bases. All of Larkin’s $214,000 contributions came from individuals, with 57% from contributions less than $200 and 43% from larger contributions.

Moskowitz for Congress took in $677,000 in contributions from individuals, with 20% donated by people who gave less than $200 and 80% from larger contributions. Moskowitz took in another $225,000 from political committees such as PACs.

“From New York to Colorado to South Florida, voters are sending the same message: they want representatives who fight for them, not for corporate donors and special interests,” Larkin said in a written statement. “Every dollar we raised this quarter is proof that people in this district are ready for something different. We’re going to use every resource we have to make sure every voter in FL-25 hears our message before August 18.”

Between what he started with and what he raised, Moskowitz had more than five times as much money as Larkin had available during the quarter. Larkin spent $204,000, almost as much as he took in during the quarter. Moskowitz spent $275,000. (Spending figures sometimes include relatively small amounts for items such as refunding campaign contributions.)

Moskowitz reported a cash balance of $1.2 million at the beginning of the quarter and ended with $1.9 million in his campaign account. The campaign owes the candidate $26,000 from a loan during his first run for Congress.

“These numbers reflect the energy and enthusiasm we’re seeing across South Florida,” Moskowitz said in a statement. “Every dollar raised is a vote of confidence from the people of this community, and it’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly. We’re building a campaign that can win in November and take back the House majority, and these resources are going to help us do exactly that.”

25th District

Larkin, Harrison, Kaufman, Moraitis and Singer have been challenging Moskowitz for months in a different district.

The 25th Congressional District didn’t exist until early May when Republicans who control state government finalized new congressional district boundaries and pieced together a new district by stringing together coastal communities in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

The unusual mid-decade redistricting changed most South Florida districts significantly. It came after President Donald Trump told Republican-controlled states he wanted them to change their districts in ways that would elect more Republicans and fewer Democrats in November.

The new district has a slight Republican tilt.

The partisan voting index from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district as R plus 3, which means it performed 3 points more Republican than the nation during the last two presidential contests.

Data from multiple analysts showed that Trump won the district by about 9 percentage points in 2024, but Democrat Joe Biden won it by about 5 points in 2020.

Outside analysts suggest the 25th District isn’t a guaranteed win for whoever emerges from the Republican primary. All three nonpartisan ratings, Cook, Inside Elections and Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, rate it as a toss-up.