Who raised the most and where was the money spent in the TN House 97 race?

How much money do you really need? win an election? Well, Shelby County voters could find out very soon.

With Election Day now less than a week away, most final campaign finance reports were filed before the Nov. 5 general election. From $30,000 in advertising spending to double-digit spending on food and drink, candidates are trying to reach voters and volunteer their time in the days leading up to the big day.

Shelby County voters have, or already have, a very close Tennessee House of Representatives race to decide in early voting. This year, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a national fundraising organization dedicated to electing Democratic candidates at the state level, targeted three races in Tennessee to raise more money and hopefully weaken the Republican supermajority.

All eyes were on the race in between incumbent Republican John Gillespie and local business owner and former teacher Jesse Huseth, a Democrat, one of the DLCC’s targets. The race is contentious, and there are attacks against Huseth over his lack of transparency in financial reports.

The Commercial Appeal broke down campaign finance reports from the start of filings in the first quarter to the final filing before Election Day.

“Target Race” brings in top dollars

District 97 The race attracted national attention and was also one of the highest purse races in the county. Huseth has previously said the area has changed dramatically over the years, which is one of the reasons he’s banking on to win the race.

In 2020, Gabby Salinas lost to Gillespie by 1.6 percentage points. In 2022, Gillespie won comfortably with 13.4% against Toniko Harris.

The district was redrawn before the 2022 race. The Redistribution of excluded parts of the right-wing Bartlett and included more left-leaning Memphis — although that didn’t seem to play a role in the election.

Gillespie said his commitment to being a die-hard Republican and the amount of money he has brought to Shelby County through the state appropriations process are what will hopefully keep him in office.

The area that encompasses East Memphis has changed over the years. The elected officials representing the area are both Democrats and Republicans, including:

Shelby County Board of Commissioners Chairman Michael Whaley, a Democrat.
Memphis-Shelby County School Board Commissioner Amber Huett-Garcia holds a nonpartisan seat but previously ran for the Tennessee House as a Democrat.
Memphis City Councilman Jeff Warren, who holds a nonpartisan seat, has donated to Democratic candidates and expressed his Democratic affiliation.
Memphis City Councilwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington holds a nonpartisan seat but has expressed her affiliation with Democrats.
Tennessee Senator Brent Taylor, a Republican.
U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, a Republican.

Since the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee announced in late September that it was targeting the race, both the Huseth and Gillespie campaigns have been flooded with money.

For Huseth, just over 90% of his donors come from Tennessee, with 61% of those Tennessee donations coming from Shelby County residents. Likewise, Gillespie receives nearly 94% of his campaign contributions from donors in the state of Tennessee, with about 64% of those coming from Shelby County donors.

Huseth saw donations come from far more counties than Gillespie. There were 15 different counties in Tennessee where a resident or PAC donated to Gillespie’s campaign, compared to 26 that donated to Huseth’s campaign.

Davidson County, which includes Nashville, was at the top of both candidates’ donor lists for donations outside of Shelby County: Gillespie received $31,550 and Huseth received $42,095.67.

Gillespie also received $4,800 from Williamson County donors and $3,050 from Sumner County donors. Blount County donors gave Huseth $2,540 and Knox County donors gave $2,255.33 to his campaign.

Gillespie has received significantly more support from political action committees, tax-exempt organizations that can donate larger amounts of money to campaigns than individual donors. Nearly 46% of his donations, totaling $65,100, came from 57 PAC donations.

According to financial reports, all but seven of these PACs are based in Tennessee.

However, Huseth’s finances were largely funded by individual donors. About 18% of his donations came from 16 different PAC donors, totaling $26,825.48. Five of these PACs are not based in Tennessee.

Huseth has received donations from nearly half the states in the country, with donations from residents and PACs in Illinois, Washington, D.C. and Maryland accounting for 4.3% of his campaign’s budget.

As for the amount of out-of-state money, Gillespie said there were five other states with total contributions exceeding $1,000. In total, Gillespie contributed donations to his campaign from eight states other than Tennessee.

In Huseth, only three other states exceeded the $1,000 threshold.

Looking at Gillespie’s top three donor states — including three states that gave $1,000 — about 4.06% of his total campaign budget came from other states. These three major donor states are Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas.

Donors from Texas, North Carolina and Mississippi each gave a total of $1,000 to Gillespie’s campaign.

What do candidates spend money on?

Candidates for political office can spend campaign finance money on specific things. In general, candidates are not permitted to spend campaign funds for personal use.

“Personal use is defined as any use of funds that would require the candidate or official to treat the use as gross income under Section 61 of the 1986 IRS Code,” the statement said Office of Ethics and Campaign Finance, Tennessee Registry of Election Finance.

Huseth outperformed Gillespie in the last month before the election, plus he has more money in the bank, with about $33,000 to spend through Oct. 31.

In the final report, which covered the period from October 1 to October 26, Huseth exceeded Gillespie, with expenses of $105,000 for Gillespie and $111,000 for Huseth. Gillespie’s largest expenditure in the final report went to Memphis advertising firm WestRogers Strategic Communications, totaling $28,900.

Huseth’s largest expense in the final report was on advertising to Memphis marketing firm Banzai Marketing, totaling $38,000.