Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has brought in $15.4 million in campaign dollars so far this year, more than anyone other representative in the House, new Federal Election Commission filings show, the New York Post reported over the weekend.
The New York progressive Democrat has pulled in $4.3 million this year from her home state, with the rest of the funds coming from outside.
Ocasio-Cortez is spending $3.6 million on Facebook and Instagram ads which barely target New Yorkers, a review of campaign expenditures shows.
"It's not unusual that a candidate, especially someone like AOC, would buy media outside of their home district – but not any politician can do it," said Steve Caplan, a political advertising expert at the University of Southern California. "It's something that is fairly typical of high profile, national level politicians, and she is certainly that."
Some of her biggest individual donors are coming from California, Massachusetts, and Maine, where dozens gave the maximum allowed contribution of $3,500. Only 12% of those top donors were in New York, according to the Post.
Jacob Neiheisel, a political communication expert at the University of Buffalo, said that "she is trading on her national profile to go where the dollars are. It's become incredibly easy to pull dollars from all across the country... And there's a lot of money in southern California."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.