Show Us The Money

Nathan Willett, a Kansas City councilman and high school math teacher running as a Republican for Missouri's 6th U.S. House District, has raised $575,569 for the open seat, according to Federal Election Commission filings covering Jan. 1 through July 15. His campaign committee, Nathan Willett for Congress, spent $436,244 over the same period and finished it with $139,325 in the bank. The committee also reported $60,615 in debts owed. Willett is one of five Republicans on the ballot Tuesday, Aug. 4, in the only Missouri House seat with no incumbent running.

Contributors

Almost all of the contributions came from people, not organizations. Individuals gave $551,333, or roughly 96% of the campaign's total receipts, with $540,970 of that itemized and $10,363 arriving in contributions small enough that the campaign doesn't have to name who wrote them. Other political committees kicked in $23,500. Party committees gave nothing. Willett himself contributed $50 and loaned his campaign nothing at all, an unusual restraint in a race this expensive.

Candidate Rankings

Willett and radio host Chris Stigall have spent the primary running neck and neck on the money. Stigall reported $599,336 raised and $433,286 spent through July 15, putting him about $24,000 ahead of Willett on receipts and roughly $3,000 behind him on spending. For two campaigns with very different backers, that is close to a photo finish.

The outside money is where the two diverge. Come and Take It PAC has spent roughly $1.5 million supporting Stigall, while Conservative Future Fund has spent $235,181 backing Willett. Those are independent expenditures and do not pass through either candidate's campaign account.

That second number is now contested. A conservative group called Liberty Alliance USA filed complaints Monday, July 20, with the FEC and the Missouri Ethics Commission alleging that Willett improperly steered money from his abandoned state Senate campaign into the super PAC boosting his congressional bid. The complaints center on a $165,384 payment his state committee made to a Georgia nonprofit, Grassroots America Inc., on April 30, the day the committee filed to dissolve, and on the $160,384 that nonprofit contributed to Conservative Future Fund seven weeks later. The nonprofit and Willett's federal campaign share a treasurer.

No regulator has found that Willett broke any law; the complaints themselves concede they lack direct evidence of who ordered the transfer or why, and neither agency is expected to rule before voting ends. Willett's campaign has called the complaints baseless and frivolous, and Liberty Alliance has its own stake in the outcome: it shares an address with the law firm of Todd Graves, brother of the retiring congressman who has endorsed Stigall.

Among the three other Republicans on the ballot, only Jim Ingram of Kansas City has posted meaningful resources. Through June 30, the most recent period for which his figures were reported, Ingram had loaned his own campaign $137,000 and raised an additional $31,000. Cody Oshel of Maryville and Nathanael Schultz of Bowling Green trail well behind.

Incumbents vs. Challengers

Sam Graves, who has held the seat for 26 years, is not seeking reelection, and his departure opened the only Missouri House seat without a sitting member defending it. Statewide, the contrast is stark: the seven Missouri incumbents seeking reelection held $13.6 million in their campaign accounts on July 15, while challengers across the state held $1.9 million combined. Willett's $139,325 would look thin against a sitting member of Congress. Against another first-time federal candidate in an open race, it is a fair fight.

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