Election 2026: Beth Macy campaign shows strength with impressive money numbers

I don’t know Beth Macy, but what I know of Beth Macy would have me believing that she isn’t comfortable having to brag about her political fundraising prowess.

Just part of the game in politics, the game that Macy, the acclaimed author of Dopesick, the defining book on the opioid crisis, now finds herself in.

Her campaign team put out a press release on Tuesday hyping how Macy will report having raised $615,000 for her campaign for the Democratic Party nomination in the Sixth District in its first quarter of activity, which came to an end on Dec. 31.

For reference, Ben Cline, the MAGA Republican incumbent in the Sixth District, reported raising a total of $1.01 million for his most recent re-election campaign, in the 2024 cycle.

Ben, I’ve been trying to tell you, with the district lines about to be redrawn, you should be moderating.

Maybe I need to modify that advice to: Ben, it might be time to pull a Tim Walz and drop out of the race now, to avoid being embarrassed in November.

“Across Virginia’s Sixth District and the country, people are telling us they want change. They want leaders who won’t bow down in the face of obstacles, and who aren’t just talking heads for a political party that has failed to deliver on its promises,” said Macy, per a quote from the campaign press release.

“While billionaires are consolidating wealth, the middle class is disappearing, and politicians aren’t doing a single thing about it. Our campaign represents an opportunity to make that change and elect a leader for the middle class, not the billionaire class. I am so grateful for this tremendous support to make that happen.”

From the press release, there were more than 4,800 individual donors to the Macy campaign in its first three months of activity, 79 percent of whom gave less than $100.

Which is to say, hers isn’t a campaign propped up by the monied elites.

As a long-time investigative reporter for the Roanoke Times, she’s probably pissed off the monied elites already as it is.

If you haven’t read Dopesick, I highly recommend it – it’s the story of the opioid crisis told through its impacts on Southwest Virginia communities bypassed by NAFTA, rich kids in nice neighborhoods in Roanoke looking for an escape, and communities in the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley ravaged by heroin flowing in from Baltimore and New York City.

Learn more about the Beth Macy congressional campaign at bethmacyforcongress.com.