Greg Sowards
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Greg Sowards has loaned his campaign $150,000, which he says is “seed money” to jumpstart his campaign.
Sowards confirmed the loan in an interview with NMPolitics.net.
It isn’t the first time he’s backed a run for office with his own cash. Sowards ponied up $325,000 for his unsuccessful 2008 U.S. House campaign – a race in which he was up against better-funded and more prominent candidates.
This time around, Sowards is facing at least one prominent and, at least thus far, better-funded primary candidate. Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson raised more than $300,000 in her first few weeks in the race.
Lt. Gov. John Sanchez is also seriously considering joining the Republican U.S. Senate primary. Like Sowards, he has demonstrated a willingness to self-fund, having loaned his lieutenant governor campaign almost $274,000 last year.
Sowards is using some of his money to hire prominent D.C. consultants. He recently announced that he had retained Tyler Harber and Kurt Luidhardt from The Prosper Group for general consulting, online fundraising, and telephone voter contact. He also hired Darcie Johnston of Johnston Consulting and Paul Hatch of 101 Strategy Partners to serve as the campaign’s finance consultants. They will focus on national donor operations and campaign finance strategies.