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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has seen a fundraising windfall from small-dollar donors as he has become one of the faces of the Republican Party's attacks on President Joe Biden.
Comer didn't rule out a bid for higher office in a new NBC News story written Thursday by Scott Wong, saying, "I can’t predict the future. I don’t know what’ll happen. I certainly don’t want to be one of these people that stay in Washington forever and get old."
Comer, who previously ran for governor of Kentucky, made those comments before Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze during a press conference.
It's been a consequential eight months for Comer, who took over as committee chairman after Republicans flipped the House and has been using that power to bludgeon Biden, accusing him of being corrupt.
And Comer's fundraising has reflected that newfound prominence.
The Kentucky Republican has raised $1 million so far the first six months of 2023, including $400,000 in unitemized contributions (money raised from people who gave less than $200).
He's operating on a completely different scale than just a few years ago. Comer raised only $15,000 from small-dollar donors over the entire two-year period from 2021 through 2022.
And at this point on the calendar last election cycle, through the second quarter of 2021, he had raised just $5,050 from those small contributors.