Source: Politics<\/p>\n
The numbers are in and it\u2019s official: The attack on Democratic Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow backfired. <\/p>\n
The Michigan Republican state senator who falsely described McMorrow as a \u201cgroomer\u201d in an April fundraising email raised less than $300 in the days following the solicitation, according to campaign finance filings. McMorrow, on the other hand, raised more than $1 million. <\/p>\n
In the fundraising email, Michigan State Sen. Lana Theis of Brighton said colleagues like McMorrow were \u201coutraged\u201d that they couldn\u2019t \u201cgroom and sexualize kindergartners.\u201d The charge prompted McMorrow to make a spirited speech in the Senate in her own defense \u2014 a speech that went viral and made her a political celebrity on the left. <\/p>\n
Theis didn\u2019t see an influx of small-dollar donations from the solicitation \u2014 her take from individual donors was just $235. But McMorrow used the response to her speech to build a data base of 11,000 donors from all 50 states, according to her husband and treasurer Ray Wert. <\/p>\n
McMorrow has said she wants to flip Michigan\u2019s Senate, which comprises 22 Republicans and 16 Democrats and is now more competitive following redistricting done by an independent commission. <\/p>\n
Theis didn\u2019t return POLITICO requests for comments. Her husband, Sam, hung up on a reporter when asked about the sum: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have any information on that, go ahead and do a search on the database, thanks,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy guess is she never read that email, and it was a pretty big mistake,\u201d said Cody Mott, a Michigan Republican campaign finance attorney with the firm Foster Swift Collins & Smith, who worked for Americans for Prosperity, a Theis ally, when she served in the House.<\/p>\n
Matt Sweeney, a spokesperson for Senate Republicans, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n