Rep. Donna Edwards, a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Maryland being opened by Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s retirement, said Thursday that she won’t accept any donations from Wall Street and that her opponents in the race shouldn’t either.
I’m refusing Wall Street donations and calling on all candidates for Senate in Maryland to do the same. pic.twitter.com/ZSDv71sKEL
— Donna Edwards (@DonnaFEdwards) April 9, 2015
“I will not accept any donations from Wall Street banks in my campaign for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat,” Edwards, D-Fort Washington, wrote in an email to members of Democracy for America, one of the progressive groups supporting her campaign.
Edwards and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Kensington, are the only declared candidates in the race so far, but several other Democrats are openly considering entering the race.
Van Hollen, a top fundraiser for the Democratic Party, is expected to top Edwards in raising money. Edwards is not considered a great fundraiser, but she does well with grassroots groups, like Democracy for America.
During the 2014 election cycle, Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley contributed a combined $15,500 to Van Hollen’s campaign, 1.5 percent of the money he raised.