U.S. Senate Candidate Joel Dykstra's Fundraising Increases

From today's mailbag:

Sioux Falls, S.D. - A strong second quarter of fundraising and the post-Primary wave of support have pushed Republican United States Senate candidate Joel Dykstra's campaign contributions past the $380,000 mark.

In his second quarter campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission, Dykstra's campaign reported raising total funds of $176,459 in the quarter with $96,156 of that coming after the June 3 Primary election.

Dykstra said fundraising has accelerated since his Primary win on June 3 and he can see substantial growth in the momentum of the campaign.

Dykstra remains proud of the fact that campaign contributions continue to be primarily from South Dakota. More than 97% of contributors are South Dakota residents and a broad range of the state's voters have contributed since the campaign began 12 months ago. Several hundred new donors have also been added just since the Primary. "I think our fundraising success among South Dakotans says a lot about the grassroots focus of our campaign. It also demonstrates that South Dakotans are supporting a change in leadership and are tired of business as usual in Washington," he said.

In addition to showing their monetary support, Dykstra said voters are responding to his message and ideas about how to change the status quo in Washington. "Voters across the state are telling me they think the current system in Washington is broken and ineffective," he said. "They don't want six more years of what they've had for the past 20."

With the growing concern about high gas prices, Dykstra said South Dakotans are also giving him very positive feedback on his specific proposals for addressing the nation's energy crisis. "The Majority Party in Congress keeps repeating that we can't drill our way out of the problem," he said. "However, there is no reason for us to remove any positive action from consideration as part of a comprehensive solution. We should use every resource at our disposal to move America further along the path toward more energy independence to reduce gas prices."