“These are unusually strong numbers for challengers,” says Stephen Farnsworth, a professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington. “Challengers usually find it difficult to compete with incumbents when it comes to raising money, but [in] the Barnett/Robinson and the Cox/Bynum-Coleman races, you see that those challengers are doing what few challengers do: raise money in amounts comparable to incumbents.”
Generally, Farnsworth says both parties are putting a lot of money into Chesterfield races, calling it “the equivalent of a financial arms race.”
