Seven months after Republican Congressman Steve Knight (CA-25) snapped on camera and threatened a protester “If you touch me again, I’ll drop your ass,” it appears that Knight is the one who has been dropped – by his own colleagues.
After Knight made the “loser” lists for his paltry $28,000 fundraising total in the first quarter this year, Washington Republicans took pity on him and inflated his fundraising in the second quarter to $405,000. Now it looks like they have given up on this flawed candidate because Knight’s fundraising has plummeted to $77,000 this quarter.
Last quarter, Knight received almost $127,000 from other Members of Congress and their Political Action Committees. This quarter, he received zero dollars from them.
“It looks like Steve “Knightmare” Knight is haunting Washington Republicans,” said Barb Solish of the DCCC. “They took pity on him last quarter, but it hasn’t taken long for them to realize Steve Knight isn’t worth their money.”
Washington Republicans have plenty of reasons to give up on Knight: Knight stayed in hotels on the taxpayer’s dime, failed to disclose ethics information, and voted to keep the Confederate Battle Flag flying. Knight’s missteps were featured in an online video ad “Knightmare” this week.
President Obama nearly won the 25th District, where demographics are rapidly changing. Almost half of the voting age population in CA-25 is non-white and in 2014 Democratic voter registration surpassed Republican registration.