WASHINGTON — Democrat Bridget Brink’s campaign in Lansing got $93,500 last quarter from Utah donors ― an odd infusion for someone running to be the next member of Congress from mid-Michigan.

In a Metro Detroit contest, attorney and Democrat Eric Chung has received 95% of his larger contributions from out of state, with the most coming from California, New York and the District of Columbia, according to itemized records required for donors who have given at least $200.

And in Flint, Republican Amir Hassan, who is aiming to challenge first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Bay City, pulled 77% of his itemized haul from outside Michigan, with the most coming from Virginia.

Out-of-state donors are flooding competitive swing district contests for Congress in Michigan, with several candidates hauling in an outsized amount of cash from far-flung donors.

U.S. House hopefuls Brink, Chung and Hassan are all first-time candidates who recently moved back to Michigan to run for Congress after careers elsewhere. Analysts said they likely launched without a broad base of donors in Michigan and looked beyond state lines for early fundraising dollars to help fuel their bids.

Out-of-state donations aren’t unusual in congressional campaigns, especially in the battleground U.S. House districts where Brink, Hassan and Chung are running. That’s because, due to gerrymandering, most Americans now live in districts that are safe Democratic or safe Republican seats, leaving just a couple dozen truly competitive districts that determine the control of the House.

“So if you want to be involved in who controls the Congress, you have very, very limited options,” said Adrian Hemond, a Democrat and CEO of the firm Grassroots Midwest. “That means your best opportunity to participate financially is probably going to be in another state.”

Candidates, however, would rather raise money from within the district where they’re running, or at least in the state. This helps to signal their viability as they’re building their nascent campaigns, Michigan State University political scientist Matt Grossmann said.

“It’s more important as a signal than anything else. If that signal is weakened because it doesn’t seem to show in-district or in-state support, then that can be a problem,” Grossmann said.

“That said, it’s still better to have more. And because we have nationalized politics, in some ways it makes sense that we have nationalized fundraising networks.”

It’s also natural for candidates to raise money through direct friendships and professional connections.

“That's a pretty common strategy,” Grossmann said. “Although all the money coming from Utah is less so.”

Brink’s Utah link

Brink is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge first-term U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, in Michigan's 7th District, representing the greater Lansing area.

Her connection to red-state Utah is her friendship with Dell Loy Hansen, the founder of the real estate investment firm the Wasatch Group and a former professional soccer team owner in Utah. In 2020, Hansen sold the Real Salt Lake after reports of racist comments he made as the team’s owner, according to the New York Times.

Hansen has spent tens of millions to support a charity effort to rebuild homes in war-torn Ukraine, where Brink served as the U.S. ambassador for three years starting in 2022 under President Joe Biden. She resigned her post in April over her opposition to the policies of the Republican administration of President Donald Trump.

Hansen has given Brink’s campaign the maximum donation of $7,000 this year. He is a “longtime” friend of Brink’s and a donor to Democrats in Michigan and around the country, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Holly and the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee, said Sam Boorstyn, campaign manager for Brink.

Sixteen other employees of Wasatch companies donated at least $63,000 this year to Brink’s bid for U.S. House. Her campaign would not explain the crush of donations from Wasatch employees, such as whether Hansen or someone else hosted a fundraiser for her in Utah last quarter. Hansen didn't respond to a request for comment.

Boorstyn said Brink is building a “powerful coalition” to defeat Barrett and take back the House.

“Bridget is the only candidate in the race with a proven record of standing up to Trump, and we’re proud of the broad, enthusiastic support her grassroots campaign continues to build,” Boorstyn said in a statement.

Brink has led fundraising among the Democratic primary contenders in Michigan’s 7th, raising over $1.1 million since her launch in June. About 7% of the donations from those who gave $200 or more were from Michigan, according to campaign finance filings.

Utah wasn’t her top state for contributions. She took in more from the states of New York ($129,560) and Illinois ($106,000). She also raised more from donors in D.C. ($86,600), Virginia (nearly $75,000) and California (nearly $68,400) than from Michigan (about $60,600) through Sept. 30.

Her campaign said that with small-dollar donations included that Brink has received more than 2,000 contributions from Michigan, or 16% of her overall total.

Matt Maasdam ― an Ann Arbor Township resident who is running against Brink in the Democratic primary ― reported 16% of the itemized contributions to his campaign from addresses inside Michigan. The campaign of Maasdam, who moved to Michigan in 2019, raised about as much from the Wolverine State as from the Golden State (California), $54,000.

A former Navy SEAL and White House aide, Maasdam separately brought in at least $86,400 to another fundraising entity, with about 23% of that total coming from Michigan donors giving over $200. Only a portion of those donations was transferred to his main campaign account.

Barrett, a former state lawmaker, raised about a third of his itemized haul this year from Michigan donors and the rest from outside the state. Last cycle, Michigan was his top state for contributions.

Candidates running in battleground districts are under a lot of pressure to raise a lot of money, said Michael Beckel, research director for Issue One, a bipartisan political reform organization in Washington.

The typical House member in a toss-up race raised an average of about $10,900 a day between January 2023 and December 2024, according to an Issue One review of federal campaign finance filings.

“Voters typically understand that campaigns are expensive, but voters don't want to see candidates who appear to be beholden to out-of-state donors and special interests,” Beckel said.

The Slotkin blueprint

Barrett occupies the seat previously held by now-Sen. Slotkin, whom analysts pointed to as a model for political hopefuls returning to Michigan to run for office after embarking on careers elsewhere.

The Holly Democrat worked in national security in Washington before moving back to Michigan to launch a U.S. House bid in 2017. At the time, she was called a "carpetbagger" and faced criticism for mostly raising money from out-of-state donors, but her fundraising advantage ultimately helped propel her to victory over two-term U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, in 2018.

Bishop, a former state lawmaker, in the 2018 cycle raised about $1.2 million from itemized individual contributors ― more than two-thirds of which came from in-state giving.

Slotkin raised about $4.6 million in itemized contributions during the cycle, close to 75% of which came from out of state. She raised almost 10 times as much from outside Michigan compared with Bishop.

Her in-Michigan fundraising lead was about $450,000, a sizable gap in its own right but small compared with the vast out-of-state edge she enjoyed. Slotkin won the seat by 3.8 percentage points, 50.6% to 46.8%.

These hopefuls get most cash in-state

Many of the U.S. House candidates who raised more of their money from inside Michigan this year have run for office before or had longer careers in the state.

Democrat Tim Greimel, a candidate in the 10th District in the Detroit suburbs, served three full terms as a lawmaker in the Michigan state House and is the mayor of Pontiac.

He trails Chung by about $200,000 in overall fundraising, but about 91% of Greimel’s listed donors have Michigan addresses compared with 5% for Chung.

Christina Hines, a former special victims prosecutor in Wayne County, previously ran for office. About 79% of the Warren Democrat’s support has come from inside the state.

Greimel, Hines and Chung are vying for the nomination in the 10th District, where GOP Rep. John James of Shelby Township is running for governor.

None of the three Democratic candidates has been particularly prolific at fundraising inside the 10th District, according to a Detroit News analysis. Greimel and Hines each listed several dozen donors who reside within district lines: 42 for him and 59 for her, while Chung had seven.

Those figures exclude P.O. boxes, which contributors sometimes list but do not necessarily indicate their residence.

“Eric is proud of the support he has received from across Michigan, both grassroots contributions and endorsements from Michigan leaders and activists,” Chung spokesperson Taylor Whitsell said in a statement.

The trend of experienced candidates raising more from in-state is apparent in a west Michigan contest, too.

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Holland, has not yet announced if he will seek reelection, but the longtime congressman has tapped his well of Michigan-based donors to make up nearly 75% of his itemized haul this year.

His newest potential opponent, Democratic state Sen. Sean McCann of Kalamazoo, got more than 90% of his itemized support from Michigan, and about 60% from residences inside the 4th District's boundaries.

That is an outlier across the four potentially competitive seats in this cycle: No other candidate has raised even half their itemized sum from inside their district lines.

By contrast, Hassan in Flint had five donations from inside the 8th District, where he’s campaigning for the GOP nomination. The former federal law enforcement officer saw about 23% of his itemized total come from inside Michigan. He aims to challenge McDonald Rivet, who raised about 36% of her itemized haul this year from inside the Mitten.

"Amir is not a politician, and this campaign isn’t built on big money," Hassan campaign manager Sean Volkens said by email.

"We’re honored to have received nearly 2,500 individual contributions from regular, hardworking people who recognize Amir’s service, passion and dedication to delivering proper representation to Michigan’s 8th District for the first time in half a century.”

In the Lansing area, Democrat William Lawrence is a first-time candidate aiming to take on Barrett with a mix of in-state and out-of-state bona fides as an activist.

He helped co-found the youth-led Sunrise Movement in 2017 to press for climate action nationally before shifting his focus in recent years to housing advocacy in Michigan. Just over a third of his listed donations have come from inside Michigan, and just under two-thirds from outside.

A notable outlier in the fundraising trends is GOP newcomer Robert Lulgjuraj of Sterling Heights.

The suburban Detroit assistant prosecutor is a first-time candidate, but 93% of his itemized haul came from Michigan. Much of that flowed from members of the state’s Albanian community, in which he was raised.

"A lot of them are first-time donors in the political process who support him because they know him, trust him and support him strongly," Lulgjuraj adviser Jamie Roe said.

Roe said their initial focus had been Michigan's Albanian community, but they'll expand that to communities in other states, including the Albanian community in Texas.

"They've never had an Albanian American member of Congress,” Roe said.

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