Marc Molinaro’s first-quarter fundraising dwarfed by Democratic challenger’s

Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro raked in roughly $537,000 in donations for the first quarter of 2024 – less than half the $1.4 million raised by his Democratic opponent, Josh Riley. 

Seven months out from what’s shaping up to be a potentially consequential race for both parties, Molinaro’s fundraising total for the 19th Congressional District seat has been quickly surpassed by his challenger’s sizable haul.  According to the latest filings, Riley reports raising a total of $3.4 million this cycle with $2.5 million cash on hand. Molinaro, who has brought in a total of roughly $2.8 million, currently has about $1.8 million cash on hand. 

The upcoming Nov. 5 election marks the second time the two men have gone head to head to represent the upstate district. Molinaro, who previously served as Dutchess County executive and Tivoli mayor, defeated Riley, a former U.S. Senate attorney, during the 2022 midterm election with a small but definitive margin. With Republicans’ Congressional majority hanging by a thread, the rematch between Molinaro and Riley is expected again to have potential national implications. The former was part of the small group of freshman New York Republicans who flipped four New York seats in 2022. 

“Josh Riley is a millionaire DC Insider who is relying on special interests and big money friends to buy a congressional seat in Upstate New York,” Matt Organ, Molinaro’s campaign manager, said in a statement, in response to a request for comment about the latest filings.

“I am honored by the outpouring of grassroots support our campaign has received. Upstate New Yorkers are tired of career politicians selling us out to the utility companies who jack up our rates, the pharmaceutical companies who put profits over patients, and the far-right fringes in Washington who, like Marc Molinaro, support a nationwide abortion ban that restricts reproductive health care for women here in New York,” Riley said in a statement. “I am not accepting a penny of corporate PAC money, and my vote will never be for sale.”