July 16, 2025 11:15 AM UTC

Fundraising Numbers for Governor

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• by: Colorado Pols

The fundraising reports for Q2 are finally available for both state and federal campaigns. We also now have enough people running for various seats that we can actually compare some of those numbers. So, let’s do that…

We’ll start here with the biggest prize on the 2026 ballot: The open seat for Governor.

As a reminder, contribution limits for individual donors are $725 for the Primary Election and $725 for the General Election, which means that campaigns can accept a maximum check of $1,450 from a single donor. Not all of this money can be used in a Primary Election, however, but we’ll skip the intricacies of campaign finance law for now (click here to go down that particular rabbit hole).

NOTE: We’re sorting the numbers below according to cash-on-hand (COH) figures, because the “pump and dump” era of fundraising encourages some campaigns to tout fundraising totals that can be misleading if the campaign also spent an inordinate amount of money on fundraising consultants. What matters here is how much money a campaign has for operating expenses going forward.

Attorney General Phil Weiser has shown since his 2018 campaign for AG that he is a dogged fundraiser, and has been in the race longer to amass significantly more cash on hand. Bennet came on strong since getting in the race, however, and outraised Weiser for the Q2 period by $1.7 million to just over $1 million. Raising money for a state race is different than raising money for a federal race, of course, because the contribution limits are much higher for federal races ($7,000 per donor) and because there are likely more overall potential donors interested in the U.S. Senate than in who is elected to lead the State of Colorado.

The top candidates for Governor in 2026 will undoubtedly also be supported by outside interest groups and various independent expenditure committees (IEC); whatever candidates raise directly will likely be dwarfed by outside spending anyway. But as we always point out, early fundraising numbers are indicative of more than bank accounts — it shows the base level of support for a particular candidate. In this regard, we learned from Q2 that Weiser is not widely viewed as a long shot candidate compared to Bennet.

On the Republican side, it should come as no surprise to learn that none of the candidates are raising any real money. The most interesting number here is that of State Sen. Mark Baisley (R-Roxborough Park), who was the first recognizable name from either party to make his 2026 intentions known. We already knew that Baisley was not going to be Colorado’s next Governor, but we’re still surprised that he has a piddly $2,500 in the bank after nine months as a candidate. At this rate, Baisley will have enough money to run a television commercial sometime in the year 2034.