There are two weeks to go before Hamilton County’s May 5 primary election. In the meantime, County Commission candidates have collectively raised nearly $250,000 in campaign donations across 10 contested races.
When accounting for fundraising for this election cycle since the beginning of 2025, Republican candidates have out-raised Democratic ones — with one Republican candidate in a contested primary receiving nearly a quarter of all donations across all races. Commissioner Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, has raised about $63,000 in donations, with the bulk of those coming during 2025. That makes him the top fundraiser out of 18 candidates who have submitted their reports. He’s also the candidate who’s spent the most — and he has the most on hand, as of the April 10 filing deadline for campaign finance reports with the Hamilton County Election Commission.
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Still, even removing Eversole as an outlier, Republican commission candidates have raised about $107,000 total, compared to $78,000 in donations to Democrats. That comes out to about $13,000 per Republican candidate, on average, and a little over $9,500 per Democratic candidate.