The challenger has his best quarter to date, but the incumbent still has more money left in his war chest.  

Democratic challenger for Pennsylvania’s newly drawn 16th District, Ron DiNicola had his best quarter to date and raised slightly more than incumbent Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Butler) from July to the end of September, but still trails by a significant cash on hand margin entering the month.

According to the FEC, DiNicola raised close to $570,000 in the October filing period, while Kelly’s campaign raised slightly under $520,000. During the previous quarter, the incumbent raised $100,000 more than the Democratic candidate; Kelly brought in over $420,000, while DiNicola raised approximately to $316,000 during the filing period from late April to the end of June.

Kelly enters the month of October with $1.06M cash on hand, doubling DiNicola’s $430,000 at the beginning of the month.   

Despite being outraised in this filing period, Kelly spent significantly more money than DiNicola’s campaign from July to the end of September. The incumbent spent $1.15M during the most recent filing report, while the Democratic challenger spent slightly over $480,000. Kelly’s campaign has spent close to three times the amount of DiNicola’s in the election cycle-to-date. Kelly has spent $2.06M in the election cycle-to-date, while DiNicola has spent $700,000. Kelly’s campaign has raised slightly over $2.3M in the election cycle-to-date and DiNicola’s campaign has raised over $1.1M.   

Neither candidate loaned their campaign money during this period, although DiNicola has loaned his campaign $140,000 in the election cycle-to-date, while Kelly has not loaned his campaign any money.

The race for the 16th district also includes Libertarian candidate, Ebert Beeman.

FiveThirtyEight has the race listed as Likely Republican.