WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2018) Candidates vying for a US Congress seat in the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections have raised around $1.7 billion for their campaigns, Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Ellen Weintraub said on Wednesday.
"In 2018, House and Senate candidates have raised roughly $1.7 billion," Weintraub told reporters at a press briefing in Washington, DC.
Waintraub clarified that House candidates have raised over $1 billion, while their colleagues who are running for seats in the Senate raised $626 million.
According to FEC statistics, in the previous mid-term campaign in 2014, candidates raised about $1.8 billion. But this year, politicians still have several weeks to collect more money from their supporters.
The US election official noted that mid-term elections usually rake in less money for candidates than presidential campaigns.
"In 2016, during the last presidential cycle, $6.4 billion was spent by federal candidates from political parties and groups," she said.
Weintraub declined to reveal whether the FEC has evidence of foreign attempts to financially influence the current campaign.
"If there were allegations of that nature, that will be part of our enforcement process, and I am not allowed to talk about this," she said.
She added that the Commission could investigate such concerns, but the outcome of any such probe would only be made public after the conclusion of the investigation.
US President Donald Trump said during a United Nations Security Council meeting last month that China was meddling in the 2018 midterm elections.
Vice President Mike Pence echoed Trump's accusations during a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC on October 4, saying that China is trying to influence American public opinion in the 2018 and 2020 elections because, "Trump's leadership is working, and China wants a different American president."
The United States has repeatedly accused Moscow of meddling in the 2016 election and trying to sway voters in Trump's favor. Russia has refuted all allegations of interfering with the vote, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that such accusations are absolutely unfounded. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, argued that no evidence had been provided to substantiate the allegations. Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Washington that Russia did not meddle in the election.
