Democrat Alex Lasry is dropping out of the U.S. Senate race after putting $12 million of his own money into the primary, and despite surging in the polls, reports say.
That news came from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which reported, via sources, the surprising news on July 27, 2022. Lasry was in a tight battle with Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes for a chance to take out Republican incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson. Sarah Godlewski is still in the race as well. Tom Nelson previously dropped out.
It’s not clear why Lasry is dropping out, although he performed more poorly against Johnson than the other Democrats in the last Marquette University poll.
We previously reported that Alex Lasry, who was running for US Senate because his father co-owns the Milwaukee Bucks, has loaned his campaign $12.3 million overall in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary.
He has spent more than $14 million from February 2021 through the end of June 2022, according to federal records. See his full reports here.
The reports show Lasry is wildly outspending his Democratic opponents because of his ability to self-fund. Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has spent $4.7 million overall.
In the most recent reporting period, Lasry spent $6.7 million, Ron Johnson spent $6.5 million, Godlewski spent $2.7 million, Barnes spent $2.2 million, and Nelson spent $530,000.
Ron Johnson, the Republican incumbent, has raised $15,488,523.30 in 2021-2022. Contributions from individuals totaled $11,670,339.90. No loans were reported from the candidate. Johnson raised $7 million in the most recent reporting period, far more than all of the Democrats together (who raised a combined $3.7 million). Johnson has $2 million cash on hand. Lasry, by comparison, only raised $520,000 from other people during the most recent time frame.
$6.5 million of Lasry’s loans to himself came in the time frame of 04/01/2022 through 06/30/2022.
