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Oct 20, 2024

Junge continues to pour his own wealth into race with McDonald Rivet

This story was updated to add new information. Republican Paul Junge, who is largely self-funding his run for the U.S. House, loaned his campaign another $1.85 million in recent months, bringing the

This story was updated to add new information.

Republican Paul Junge, who is largely self-funding his run for the U.S. House, loaned his campaign another $1.85 million in recent months, bringing the total he has poured into his race against Democratic state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet to $3.85 million, campaign finance reports showed Wednesday.

The two are running in what is widely considered a tossup district in mid-Michigan anchored by Flint, Bay City and Saginaw to replace U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, who is stepping down after six two-year terms.

Campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission for the period from July 18 to Sept. 30 showed Junge, a former assistant prosecutor and Lansing TV anchor who also worked on Capitol Hill and for the Department of Homeland Security during former President Donald Trump's term, raised $2.3 million during that time, most of it in the form of loans to himself. Junge, who has raised $4.4 million for the campaign to date, inherited millions from his father, whose company provided military housing and support services.

Junge, a Grand Blanc resident making his third run for Congress, had about $444,000 left in his campaign accounts as of Sept. 30, the records showed.

Meanwhile, McDonald Rivet, of Bay City, raised just under $3 million during the same period, none of it from loans, to bring her total for the campaign to about $4.6 million. She had about $1.6 million left in her campaign coffers.

In terms of independent spending by outside groups, McDonald Rivet had the edge: Not-yet processed FEC filings showed more than $3.9 million had been spent to either support McDonald Rivet or oppose Junge, most of it by the Washington-based House Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats ($2.2 million) and another by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (just under $600,000).

Junge's outside support was almost as high at $3.7 million with the not-yet processed files showing the Congressional Leadership Fund in Washington, which works to elect Republicans to the U.S. House, having spent $2.4 million either boosting Junge or in opposition to Rivet. The National Republican Congressional Committee has spent nearly $982,000 on Junge's behalf in the race.

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story relied on processed FEC reports on outside spending, not-yet processed reports showed additional spending that is included in the story now.