Rand Paul Outraises Grayson in Kentucky Senate Race
Despite the fact that he’s not the establishment choice in Kentucky’s GOP Senate primary, anti-tax activist Rand Paul outraised Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson by more than $350,000 during the third quarter.
Grayson announced Thursday that he brought in about $643,000 from July through September and ended the quarter with $1.1 million cash on hand.
Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) who is running to the ideological right of Grayson, raised just over $1 million for the quarter. He ended September with $912,000 cash on hand.
In his release Thursday, Grayson made sure to point out that he didn’t officially launch his campaign until the end of August, after Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) announced his retirement in late July. During the run-up to that retirement announcement, Grayson certainly tried to keep his head down as Bunning and his party leadership were engaged in open hostilities over whether he would retire.
But Grayson had been raising money for a Senate run since April through an exploratory committee. By the end of June, Grayson had raised more than $600,000 for that effort.
Also, in what might be viewed as a shot at Paul, who has relied on a national Internet-based fundraising network to fill his campaign coffers, the headline of Grayson’s release Thursday made sure to point out that 92 percent of the secretary of state’s contributions are from Kentuckians.
Despite that statistic, there’s no doubt that Grayson is the choice of the party establishment in Washington, and it’s a fact that Paul’s campaign has made use of in its own fundraising pitches.
Grayson was in Washington last month for a fundraiser at National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters that featured some two dozen GOP Senators. He was back in Washington last week for another fundraising event that featured fellow Kentuckian and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R).