Republicans Kelly and Reschenthaler also receive large shares of out-of-state donations, federal records show
By Namira Haris
NewsWorks Lab data journalist
Rep. Summer Lee has raised more money from California than from her home state of Pennsylvania for the first time in her three congressional election cycles, a NewsWorks Lab analysis of federal campaign records shows.
California, at 28%, has passed Pennsylvania, now at 21%, as the largest state source of her itemized individual contributions, according to the latest Federal Election Commission records through June 30 of this two-year cycle, which ends Dec. 31. New York ranks third, at 9.6% of her itemized money, followed by Texas at 6.2% and Illinois at 5.1%.
In 2021-22, when Lee, a Swissvale Democrat, was first elected to Congress, Pennsylvania accounted for 43% of the itemized individual dollars in her campaign.
“The share of our donor base coming from Pennsylvania has remained essentially the same as last cycle,” Kyla Gill, Lee’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “What has changed is the size of those contributions, with the average donation falling significantly as our campaign continues to build support among grassroots donors and working people.”
The share of Lee’s individual donors from Pennsylvania is 39.1% this cycle, compared to 40.9% in the previous cycle. The average California donation fell too, to $487.36 from $581.07 — though it remains more than three times the Pennsylvania average.
As politicians gather more money from outside their district, it can raise questions about whether they represent the people who live in their district, or the big-money donors, political science experts said. Voters provide the ultimate answer at the ballot box.
“It’s become almost a truism that wealthier donors are better represented by members of Congress, but fundamentally it shouldn’t matter where the member finds their campaign donations,” said Sarah Bryner, a political scientist and director at Public Agenda, who previously served as research director at OpenSecrets.
“When the voices of donors conflict with the voices of constituents, the constituent voice should, theoretically, win out,” she added. “… As her donors start to look less like Pennsylvanians, it becomes even more important to hold Rep. Lee — and all members of Congress — accountable.”
Relying increasingly on money from outside the district can carry political risk, Christopher Borick, a political scientist at Lehigh University, said.
“When candidates increasingly get their finances from outside sources, they do expose themselves to attacks that they are bought by outsiders,” he said.
Over time, a lawmaker can start to be seen as looking beyond their district and “some animosity within your local party can emerge,” he added.
Gill said Lee’s shift toward national fundraising is intentional.
“In this cycle, with so many competitive congressional races across the Commonwealth, we’ve made a deliberate effort to raise money nationally rather than compete with fellow Democrats for the same limited pool of local donors,” she said.
Lee also is building up a campaign war chest to fend off attacks from super PACs funded by out-of-district billionaires, which targeted her in the past, Gill added. The FEC’s campaign donor records show only money raised by Lee’s own campaign committee, not outside spending for or against her.
The records also do not show all of Lee’s small-dollar, unitemized support. Federal law does not require campaigns to itemize identifying information, including donor addresses, until an individual’s contributions exceed $200 in the aggregate during the election cycle. Unitemized contributions represent about a third of Lee’s individual contributions this cycle — and they made up more than 40% in 2022, according to FEC records.
Black women face a particularly significant disadvantage in raising money from large individual donors, according to a 2019 Center for Responsive Politics study, authored by Bryner. Black women running for Congress raised 55% less money than white women candidates on average in the 2018 general election, researchers found.
“Those barriers don’t disappear once you’re elected, which is why we’ve worked to build a national fundraising operation that brings new resources into Pennsylvania,” Gill said.
Other members
Among other members of Congress from western Pennsylvania, Butler County Republican Rep. Mike Kelly‘s share of itemized individual contributions fell to 24% this cycle from 73% in 2022, FEC records show. Kelly serves on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Guy Reschenthaler, a Peters Township Republican who became House chief deputy whip in 2023, has raised 31% of his itemized individual contributions from Pennsylvania this cycle, compared to 59% in 2022, FEC records show.
Committee assignments can be another reason members attract money from outside their districts, particularly when donors want access to a committee’s work, Bryner said.
Other members of the western Pennsylvania delegation have raised more than half their itemized individual contributions from Pennsylvania this cycle, according to the FEC: Chris Deluzio, a Fox Chapel Democrat, is at 55% and, among Republicans, John Joyce, of Blair County, is at 58%, and Glenn Thompson, of Centre County, is at 53%.
Deluzio’s rising Pennsylvania share could be a sign he’s positioning himself to challenge Democrat Sen. John Fetterman in the 2028 primary, and he has spent this cycle campaigning statewide for other Pennsylvania Democrats, Borick, the Lehigh political scientist, said.
“Nurturing broader Pennsylvania funding and connections right now aligns very well with his interest,” Borick said.
Deluzio and other Pennsylvania Democrats have criticized Fetterman for breaking with the party, including voting in alignment with President Donald Trump more frequently than any other Senate Democrat in 2025, according to one legislative tracker, and recently using Republican-linked fundraising infrastructure.
Thompson’s flat line, Borick said, comes down to the opposite dynamic.
“Thompson’s district is just not competitive — it’s not even close,” he said. “So, fundraising becomes less important.”
Politicians’ donor bases broaden over time, said Kenneth Miller, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who authored a 2021 study on out-of-district donors.
“When you have a not-very-competitive race, you’re not raising money as much defensively to maintain your seat; you’re raising it to build a general war chest, to distribute to other members, to improve your standing within the party,” he said.
Platforms matter
Among the donors who maxed out to Lee this cycle is Morris Pearl, a former BlackRock managing director who chairs Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans that advocates for higher taxes on people like themselves.
FEC records show Pearl first gave to Lee in September 2022, during her first campaign for Congress, and has supported her in every cycle since. He said he has kept giving because she is a progressive Democrat who has faced competitive races.
“I want to get big money out of politics,” Pearl told NewsWorks Lab. “I particularly would like to get my money out of politics. But I operate within the existing rules, and I’m doing the best I can to compete.”
FEC records show Pearl made five donations to Lee’s campaign this cycle totaling $8,500, which is $1,500 above the combined primary and general election limit and triggered a refund.
Pearl said he thinks more about a candidate’s platform than about where they live.
“Whether the candidate happens to come from Pennsylvania or California is frankly irrelevant,” he said. “That’s not even high on my list.”
Borick said the pace of Lee’s shift to out-of-state dollars suggests more donors might be looking at her platform positions rather than where she lives. FEC records show a cluster of Lee’s repeated donors across all three federal campaign cycles live in Palo Alto, Calif.
“It captures her connection to individuals who might be much more interested in her broader message,” Borick said, “her broader standing, than, per se, her local political connections to her district.”
NewsWorks Lab is a public-benefit company owned by Trib Total Media to produce high-impact, accountability journalism as a free, open-source resource. You may find more information at NewsWorksLab.com. You may reach Namira Haris at nharis@newsworkslab.com.
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