Biss campaign raised more than $825,000 in third quarter

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Daily file photo by Colin Boyle

State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) speaks in July. On Friday, the Biss for Illinois campaign announced it raised more than $825,000 in the third quarter.

Elizabeth Byrne, Assistant Campus Editor

State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) announced Friday that he had raised more than $825,000 from outside donors in the third quarter for his gubernatorial campaign, beating out businessmen J.B. Pritzker and Chris Kennedy — son of the late Robert F. Kennedy.

In a news release, the campaign team said that for the second quarter in a row, Biss received more money than Pritzker and Kennedy, both of whom have donated to their own campaigns.

In an email to The Daily, the Biss campaign said the candidate did not contribute to his campaign during the third quarter. Donations to the Biss campaign came from more than 2,650 donors across Illinois and 75 percent of the donations were under $100, according to the release.

The amount for the third quarter, which ran from July through September, dropped from the roughly $1 million Biss gathered in the second quarter. According to the release, the campaign has more than $2.6 million on hand.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Pritzker invested in August an additional $7 million into his “self-funded” campaign. Kennedy’s campaign raised roughly $1 million during the third quarter, but $250,000 came from Kennedy himself, the Tribune also reported.

Biss campaign manager Abby Witt said in the Friday news release the donations show how voters are “taking politics into their own hands.”

“JB Pritzker is spending over $120,000 of his own money every day,” Witt said. “That’s more than Daniel and his wife’s combined income in an entire year. Chris Kennedy has written his campaign two checks, totaling $500,000. That’s more than Daniel’s house is worth.”

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