Facing his first serious challenge since he was elected in 2018, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil has fundraised more than double that of Democratic challenger and veteran politician Pete Barca.

By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil has raised more than $5.3 million through mid-October, according to his last mandatory campaign finance report before the election. That dwarves the campaign haul of his Democratic challenger Pete Barca, who has raised nearly $2 million.

Steil reported spending nearly $4.6 million, while Barca reported spending nearly $1.9 million.

Notably, Steil had more than $2.3 million on hand for the final weeks of the campaign, compared to a relatively measly $133,000 for Barca. Candidates can continue fundraising through the election.

The two men are running to represent the 1st Congressional District, which stretches from Beloit and Janesville in the west to Racine and Kenosha in the east.

Steil, 43, from Janesville, first won the seat in 2018 after its former holder, then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, retired. Like most incumbents, he has been fundraising for this campaign since the election cycle started nearly two years ago.

Barca, a 69-year-old Kenosha native, is an experienced politician, and well-known in the district. He didn’t enter the race, and start fundraising, until the spring. He held this congressional seat for one term in 1993-1994, and later served as the Assembly Minority Leader for several terms.

Signaling a competitive race, huge sums of cash have been dumped into the district.

Barca received large donations from many individuals, including Kevin Conroy, CEO of Exact Sciences and attorney and former state Rep. Dana Wachs.

Mark Ruffalo, the Oscar-nominated actor who plays the Hulk and is also from Kenosha, gave $3,300 to Barca.

An individual can donate a max of $3,300 to a congressional candidate per election, according to federal law. Since candidates must run in a primary and a general election, individuals can give $6,600 per election cycle.

Political action committees, as long as they are donating to multiple candidates, can give congressional candidates $5,000 per election for a total of $10,000 per election cycle.

Steil sits on the Financial Services committee in the U.S. House, where policy and bills on that topic are shaped before going to the full body for votes. So it’s no surprise that the PACs of many large banks, including Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and BMO, have made the maximum $10,000 donation to his campaign, according to his campaign financial reports.

Steil has also received the maximum donation from many PACs of big businesses in other fields, including Comcast, Deloitte and Koch Industries.

And AIPAC, one of the most prominent pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the U.S., also gave Steil a large donation.

These figures do not include the spending and advertising being done by independent groups trying to influence the race in the district.

By raising so much cash, Steil is taking no chances.

The Cook Political Report rates the race “Likely Republican,” meaning it is not considered competitive at this point but has the potential to become so.

The district became friendlier to Democrats in the 2021 redistricting process, as Beloit and half of the college town of Whitewater were moved into the district, and parts of Waukesha County were moved out.

But Steil — pronounced “style” — still easily won the more competitive district in 2022. He faces a stiffer challenge this time in the veteran Barca.

Neither faced competition in the primary election. Barca got nearly 60,000 votes in the primary compared to about 52,000 for Steil, more evidence that the race could be competitive. Republicans note that Democrats spent heavily to get their voters out in that primary to defeat two ballot questions.

Democrats have put the district in their Red to Blue program that targets flippable seats. Republicans currently hold a slim majority in the U.S. House.

THE ISSUES

Both candidates have a long list of priorities, and the pair have similar stances on issues like public safety, border security, working to lower prices and supporting veterans in the right-leaning district.

But the candidates differ on partisan issues like abortion, with each candidate taking his party’s side in the debate. Steil also stresses the Second Amendment on his campaign website, as well as the importance of cutting government spending to reduce the debt and deficit.

Barca notes traditional liberal values of worker rights, reproductive freedom and affordable health care on his campaign website. But running in a pink district, he also stresses support for bipartisanship and other centrist positions.

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