Casselberry Democrat Noah Widmann raised more than $200,000 in the third quarter to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Mills.
That brings his grand total to more than $450,000 in contributions in the battleground seat[1]. That’s more than any Democrat has raised in the last two election cycles, or since redistricting allowed Mills to flip the seat in 2022[2] from Democrat to GOP control.
“I am proud of the deep grassroots support we’ve received from across the district since launching my run for Congress,” Widmann said. “We’re building an operation prepared to defeat America’s most corrupt Congressman Cory Mills and restore honest, hardworking leadership to Central Florida.”
Widmann’s campaign has been helped by a rash of bad publicity around Mills, including scandals with two[3] women[4], an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation[5], and accusations about him exaggerating his military service[6].
The Democrat just launched a new website, CorruptCoryMills.com[7], that lays out a timeline of negative stories about the series of scandals.
Mills hasn’t filed a quarterly report yet, but as of June had raised more than $537,000 this cycle. But he spent much of that already and closed the second quarter with less than $148,000 in cash on hand.
Widmann’s campaign hasn’t yet announced how much cash it still has in the bank. Of note, he also must contend with a Democratic Primary before taking on Mills next year. But he has been the most prolific fundraiser in the field to date.
Jennifer Adams, who lost to Mills in 2024, through June raised just over $35,000, while Marialana Kinter raised less than $9,000 at that point. The three Democrats are all vying for the party nomination next August.
Besides raising the most money, Widmann has also secured key endorsements, including from former Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman, state Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, state Rep. RaShon Young and potential U.S. Senate candidate Alexander Vindman.
References
- ^ battleground seat (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ in 2022 (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ two (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ women (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ investigation (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ military service (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ CorruptCoryMills.com (www.noahforflorida.com)