The race for a seat to represent Washington's Third Congressional District is heating up and, as a battle ground district, is expected to be one of the more expensive races in the country.
The rising totals raise the question: Where is the money coming from?
Ahead of the August primary, The Chronicle is taking a closer look at campaign finances for the two highest fundraisers in the race: Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, and state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia.
They are the only two candidates to top $1 million raised.
The totals and sources reported here represent a snapshot of fundraising through the end of March. The analysis takes a look at more than totals, seeking out who the top campaign donors were earlier this year and where in the country the top donations are coming from.
The next update on fundraising totals for activity from April through June will be available at the end of July, shortly ahead of the primary election.
Candidates for federal office are required to report their campaign finance records to the United States Federal Election Commission every quarter, with those updates being made public a month after they are submitted to the federal government. All fundraising data is sourced from the FEC website.
Fundraising totals
Gluesenkamp Perez has led the fundraising totals since her earliest opponents announced themselves in the late summer and early fall of 2025. Her coffers were bolstered by her ability to accept campaign donations in the off years between her 2024 victory and the 2025 campaign and significant support from other political action committees.
According to the FEC, the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign raised more than $4.5 million through the end of March. After spending just over $1.1 million during that period, the campaign was left with just over $3.5 million in cash on hand.
Braun, seeking to close the fundraising gap since day one of his campaign, was the only candidate other than the incumbent to raise more than $1 million by the end of March. The FEC lists the Braun campaign at about $1.23 million raised through the end of March.
After spending more than a quarter million the campaign reported having $956,256.75 still on hand.
Who is donating?
At the end of March, the Braun campaign had reported very little financial support from partisan political action committees. It’s a very different story from the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign, which had received nearly half of its fundraising total from other approved political action committees.
The Braun campaign reported just $38,317.21 in transfers from other committees while the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign reported nearly $1.9 million in transfers from other committees. A nearly $900,000 transfer for the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign came from another committee dedicated to her campaign titled the MGP Victory Fund.
The last fundraising reports are also from before Braun had received an endorsement from President Donald Trump along with the rest of the Republican establishment, including Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson and U.S. House of Representatives and Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer.
According to donation receipts submitted by the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign and available on the FEC website, a list of more than 20 political action committees are among the top donors to the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign. The most significant include House Victory Project 2026, Majority Fund, Blue Dog Victory Fund, Screen Strategies Media and the Jeffries Battleground Protection Fund.
The largest contribution aside from the MGP victory fund came from House Victory Project 2026, which posted a donation of more than $600,000.
On the other side of things, Braun, who had yet to receive the endorsement of some of his party’s most powerful leaders, had posted mostly donations by individuals by the end of March. The top eight donors to Braun’s campaign each contributed $14,000 to the campaign, with four of those donors listing the same last name.
At the end of March, Braun himself was also among the top ten of his campaign donors, contributing $10,735.79, according to the FEC website.
Where’s it coming from?
Donation receipts for both candidates show fundraising from Washington state as their biggest contributor as of March. However, for the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign, donations from in state appear to make up less than half of overall funds, while a significant majority of Braun's fundraising at the time came from within state.
The difference, again, could lie in party support, with Gluesenkamp Perez already receiving significant support from her party early in the year and Braun still going without significant fundraising support from the Republican establishment. Some of the highest contributing political action committees — like the Jeffries Battleground Protection Fund — filed using Washington, D.C., addresses.
By the end of March, Washington, D.C., was the origin point of roughly $1.4 million in donations to the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign while donations originating in Washington state were listed at just over $1.44 million.
Donations originating from four other states — New York, California, Massachusetts and Virginia — were much lower, but still topped $100,000 at the time.
At the end of March the Braun campaign posted approximately $973,000 in campaign donations coming from within Washington state — about a half a million shy of his opponents in state donation totals.
Out-of-state donations played a much smaller role in Braun’s donation totals, with donations from Virginia playing the next biggest role at $27,000 and contribution totals from other states each under $12,100.
