Strickland raises more than $670K for US Senate bid

COLUMBUS — In his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 2016, ex-Gov. Ted Strickland raised $671,073 during the first quarter of the year.

Strickland, a Democrat, started raising money on Feb. 16 and publicly announced his bid for the seat, currently held by Republican Rob Portman, on Feb. 25.

The money came from 1,543 donors.

During the final two weeks of the fundraising period — Jan. 1 to March 31 — Strickland raised $469,601, according to his campaign.

He has barely spent any of the money with $649,171 cash on hand as of March 31, according to his campaign.

“In a very short period of time, we’ve seen an outpouring of support for Ted all across Ohio,” said Rebecca Pearcey, his campaign manager. “We fully expect the momentum we’ve seen in the past several weeks to continue.”

Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, also a Democratic candidate for the Senate seat, raised more money — $757,043 — than Strickland during the first quarter. Sittenfeld announced his candidacy Jan. 22.

During the first quarter of the year, Portman, who is running for re-election, raised $2.75 million and has about $8 million in his campaign fund.