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The failed 6th Congressional District candidate contributed almost half of the money raised by her campaign
YOUNGSTOWN
During her failed bid to win the 6th Congressional District race, Democrat Jennifer Garrison gave $439,122 of her own money to her campaign.
That is 46.3 percent of the $949,151 raised by Garrison, who lost the Nov. 4 election to incumbent Rep. Bill Johnson, a Republican from Marietta, by 19.6 percentage points.
Of that amount, $428,000 were in loans, including $300,000 on Oct. 8, and $11,122 were contributions primarily to cover office expenses.
But on Nov. 7, three days after losing the election, Garrison, of Marietta, forgave $128,000 of the loans. On Nov. 17, she forgave $247,000 in loans and had her campaign repay $40,000 to her, according to her post-general-election campaign-finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
That means the campaign still owes her $13,000. As of Nov. 24, her campaign had $7,466.
Garrison was heavily recruited by national Democrats to challenge Johnson, but she didn’t receive money from the national party.
In comparison, Johnson, who won his third two-year term last month, raised $2,232,888 for his re-election. Of that amount, $13,332 came from the congressman.
Johnson spent $1,855,727 on his campaign compared with $894,987 for Garrison.
The 18-county district includes all of Columbiana County and eight townships in Mahoning County.
In the 13th District, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Howland, raised $1,028,882 and spent $783,626 to be re-elected to his seventh two-year term in Congress.
Ryan defeated Republican Thomas Pekarek of Cleveland by 37 percentage points in last month’s general election.
Pekarek didn’t file any campaign finance reports with the FEC during this election. Only candidates who raise more than $5,000 must file reports with the commission. Pekarek previously had said he didn’t expect to raise more than that amount.
The five-county 13th District includes most of Mahoning and Trumbull counties.