April 17, 2020 by David Silverberg
Casey Askar
Casey Askar, a Republican businessman and entrepreneur who only entered Florida’s 19th Congressional District race on March 20, became the top-funded candidate in the field in the first quarter of 2020 thanks to a $3 million loan he made to his own campaign, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.
Askar’s loan, plus $506,230 in donations from roughly 270 donors makes him by far the best-funded candidate, with a war chest of $3,482,873 after expenses of $23,356. Among his donors was Naples developer Todd Gates, who gave the legal limit of $2,800 each for the primary and general campaigns.
The 19th Congressional District race is now in line with national cost trends, where congressional races cost between a half million and three million dollars.
After Askar’s campaign, the next best-funded campaign was Republican William Figlesthaler, whose campaign now has $1,011,164 on hand thanks to a $1,060,000 loan from the candidate and $276,278 in donations.
All candidates’ filings from the 1st quarter of 2020 are (with the exception of Ford O’Connell, who announced the end of his candidacy):
