West Virginia's three incumbent Republican congressmen have massive financial advantages in their re-election efforts, with campaign chests that currently dwarf their Democratic challengers.
The discrepancies are particularly pronounced in the 1st and 3rd congressional districts, where Reps. David McKinley and Evan Jenkins both have more than $600,000 more than their opponents, Democrats Mike Manypenny and Matt Detch, who have struggled to raise money.
In the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Charleston, Republican Rep. Alex Mooney has about 10 times as much cash on hand as his challenger, former Democratic state delegate Mark Hunt, but Hunt's willingness to spend his own money on his campaign could narrow that gap quickly.
In the 2nd District, Hunt's campaign brought in more than $115,000 in April, May and June, by far his best fundraising quarter since he launched his campaign last fall. But about $31,000 of that total came from Hunt himself, in a loan he made to his own campaign. He has loaned his campaign nearly $93,000 to date.
Still, Hunt's campaign ended June with about $49,000 on hand, the best figure of any Democratic congressional candidate in West Virginia but a far cry from the Republican incumbents.
Hunt's campaign said fundraising had not been a priority during the primary election, but that they were now devoting significant time to it and said they raised $70,000 in June, much of which came in too late to appear on his most recent Federal Elections Commission filing.
Hunt said he expected the campaign to cost between $1.1 million and $1.8 million and that, if he was unable to raise that much, he would fill in the difference himself.
"He'll have to go negative," Hunt said of his opponent. "And when he does, I've got to be able to respond."
Mooney, Hunt's opponent, had nearly $480,000 on hand at the end of June, after raising about $135,000 in the second quarter of 2016. The Mooney campaign sent out a fundraising email from U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday morning.
"He is raising enough money to tell West Virginians how he is fighting against the Clinton- Obama agenda that destroys West Virginia jobs," Mooney campaign manager Ted Dacey said.
In the 3rd Congressional District, representing Southern West Virginia, Jenkins' campaign has more than $630,000 on hand after raising about $133,000 last quarter.
Patrick Howell, a Jenkins spokesman, said the congressman is "humbled to have the support of so many," mentioning his endorsement from groups as different as the United Mine Workers union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Detch raised only $5,000 last quarter and has about $10,000 on hand.
"Every day, West Virginians have to figure out how to live on a small budget, and the Detch campaign is doing the same," campaign spokeswoman Barbara Detch said. "We live in a district where constituents can't afford to give to a political campaign, and that's okay. That doesn't mean their voice shouldn't be heard in Washington."
In the northern 1st Congressional District, McKinley has nearly $620,000 on hand, having raised about $112,000 in the second quarter.
Manypenny, a former member of the state House of Delegates, raised only $425 in the second quarter.
His latest filing with the Federal Elections Commission lists a campaign account balance of minus-$7,117. Manypenny also intends to pay himself a salary out of campaign funds, according to his FEC filing, which says he owes himself $5,000 for a quarter-year's salary.
Neither Manypenny nor McKinley responded to requests for comment for this report.
In other campaign finance news, two of West Virginia's most prominent media moguls have made substantial donations to Republican causes.
Frequent political candidate John Raese, whose family owns West Virginia Radio Corp., West Virginia MetroNews and The Dominion Post newspaper in Morgantown, gave Donald Trump the maximum allowable $5,400 in June. Raese also announced West Virginia's delegates for Trump at the Republican National Convention, in Cleveland, on Tuesday.
Bray Cary, who owns The State Journal and the news talk show Decision Makers, gave $250,000 to the Republican Governors Association in April, a donation that was disclosed in the RGA's IRS filing on Friday.
The RGA has spent heavily to support Senate President Bill Cole's candidacy for governor, spending more than $1 million on ads in April and May.
Cary has previously raised hackles among Democrats, who demonstrated in front of his studio in June after they said he had 10 GOP officials on his show in the previous four weeks, compared to just one Democrat.
"It's now crystal clear that Bray Cary's show is nothing more than a platform to promote Bill Cole," Brittni McGuire, a Democratic Party spokeswoman, said in a news release trumpeting Cary's RGA donation. "Cary's contribution to Cole tainted what little credibility he had left."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.