In one of the most-watched House races of 2024, Democrat George Whitesides' campaign raked in over $770,000 dollars in the final 3 months of 2023 to build his war chest to challenge incumbent Rep. Mike Garica, R-Calif., Spectrum News has learned.

The former NASA Chief of Staff and one-time Virgin Galactic CEO is entering 2024 with a reported $2.2 million cash on hand.

What You Need To Know

  • Democrat George Whitesides' campaign for California's 27th Congressional District raked in over $770,000 dollars in the final 3 months of 2023

  • Whitesides is now entering 2024 with a reported $2.2 million cash on hand

  • The California 27th is a district won by President Joe Biden in 2020, but has elected Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican, in 2020 and 2022

  • Garcia's campaign has not released its quarter 4 fundraising numbers

“We've now reached over $3 million in fundraising for the entire campaign, with $2.2 million cash on hand, with nearly $800,000 raised in the past quarter,” Whitesides told Spectrum News. “It's a sign of the underlying excitement and the momentum that we're building in our campaign, and we're really grateful for it.”

According to OpenSecrets, Whitesides self-financed at least $1,070,795 to his campaign, but reported other financial support coming from large and small single donors, as well as political action committee contributions. At the end of the 3rd quarter, back in October, Whitesides reported having over $1.7 million cash on hand, with Garcia reporting over $1.5 million.

“I think people are hungry for problem solvers, honestly, and that's what I built my entire campaign around: problem-solving real things in people's lives. And also, growing local jobs. You know, people really want to have local jobs in our district,” he said. “I'm somebody who led a company, created 700 jobs locally, and somebody who can really bring real expertise to the problem of people's huge commutes that they have now — where people are doing four or five hours a day on the road. It just kills family time, and it really impacts people's personal lives.”

The California 27th, a district President Joe Biden won by a 12 point margin in 2020 over former President Donald Trump, elected Mike Garcia to his first full term that same year, making it an anomaly of one of the few districts across the country to support a Democratic candidate for President and a Republican House member. In 2020, Garcia won the seat by 333 votes; in 2022, Garcia won by a much larger margin of 17,260.

Back in October, Garcia’s disclosure showed he had raised $2,394,001 this cycle. We reached out to Garcia’s campaign to see when he would be releasing his 4th quarter fundraising numbers.

Garcia has found himself in hot water in recent months, following a Daily Beast report that the Santa Clarita congressman sold up to $50,000 in shares of Boeing stocks weeks before a Congressional committee released a report investigating the deadly crashes involving Boeing’s 737 Max airliner. Garcia sat on the committee at the time. Spectrum News then learned that political group End Citizens United filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Garcia, asking the office to investigate his actions to determine whether he broke the law.

A spokesperson for Rep. Garcia said at the time it was a “desperate attempt to resurrect a previously failed partisan attack,” and has continued to vehemently deny the allegations.

Whitesides also announced he has received new endorsements from the International Association of Fire Fighters, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass.. At the end of last year, he had been endorsed by the California Democratic Party, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif.