Thune campaign tops $17 million ahead of November election

Republican Johnson banking money after Democrats fail to field challenger

U.S. Sen. John Thune

South Dakota U.S. Sen. John Thune’s campaign reported holding $17.4 million in cash in what is its final quarterly finance report before the Nov. 8 election.

The amount sitting in Thune’s account is enough to swamp his Democratic opponent in the race, Brian Bengs, many times over in the final days of the race. Bengs’ campaign reported having $54,335 in cash.

The report covers the second quarter of the year.

On the House side, Republican Dusty Johnson had $2.2 million in cash on hand as of Sept. 30. That number is only likely to grow: For the second time in as many elections, Democrats failed to challenge Johnson in his re-election bid.

Johnson does face a challenge from Libertarian Party candidate Collin Duprel. No campaign finance filings have been made by Duprel to the Federal Election Commission, based on a search of publicly available FEC reports.