Friends,

I just wanted to drop you a quick note and thank you for helping us post a record-breaking fundraising quarter! We simply could not have done it without the incredible support of people in this community. As a conservative businessman, I will never stop fighting for lower taxes, fewer regulations and a focus on restoring the American dream that has been thrown by the wayside under the Biden administration.

Onward!

Vern

Rep. Vern Buchanan’s re-election campaign pulled in $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2022. That’s a record for any quarter for the eight-term incumbent, and a sign of the Longboat Key Republican’s growing clout.

To date, Buchanan has raised $2.8 million during the 2022 election cycle.

“We’re humbled by the extraordinary support for Vern’s pro-growth agenda of lower taxes, fewer regulations and a focus on restoring the American Dream,” campaign spokesman Max Goodman said. “Vern’s supporters know that he will bring a conservative businessman’s background to the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee.”

Importantly, the money was raised solely through outside donations as opposed to personal loans from Buchanan, the wealthiest member of Florida’s U.S. House delegation.

In December, Buchanan moved into front-runner status to become the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Kevin Brady, currently the ranking Republican on the panel, already announced he won’t seek re-election. The only other Republican on the panel with seniority over Buchanan was Devin Nunes, who resigned his seat in the House to manage former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform.

Buchanan now serves as the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. But if Republicans take the majority in the next House, he most likely becomes Chair of the full committee.

That appears to be driving the influx of dollars to Buchanan’s campaign. “There is no coincidence,” Goodman said.

Indeed, the highest amount ever raised in a single quarter by Buchanan up until now appears to be the nearly $600,000 raised in the second quarter last year. Buchanan at that point announced he would run for Ways and Means Chair, but Nunez at the time appeared to be the lead candidate for the job.

What’s more remarkable is that Buchanan doesn’t appear to be in a highly competitive race this cycle, as he has been in the past. He won his seat in the House in 2006 after defeating democrat Christine Jennings by just 369 votes out of 240,000 cast. He has since faced other challenges, most recently from nationally backed Democrat Margaret Good in 2020, but he defeated her by more than 11 percentage points.