Yoder receives first contributions of 2018 election cycle from NRA

Rep. Kevin Yoder. Photo by Andrew Poland.

In response to a question posed at the Town Hall for Our Lives forum earlier this month about whether he would continue to accept campaign donations from the National Rifle Association, Rep. Kevin Yoder’s office said they weren’t aware the four-term incumbent had received any contributions from the NRA, which describes itself as “America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights,” for the current campaign cycle.

That’s changed.

Campaign finance reports from the first quarter of 2018 show that the NRA donated $1,000 to the Yoder campaign in February. Yoder campaign spokesman CJ Grover noted that the donation had come “prior to the Parkland shooting.”

Asked whether Yoder intended to keep the donation, Grover would say only that the campaign’s current financial documentation “shows the donation has not been returned.”

Grover noted that “$1,000 makes up 0.04 percent of total contributions this cycle and NRA donations make up 0.2 percent of total contributions in Yoder’s congressional career.”

Yoder has received approximately $19,000 from the NRA itself over the course of his Congressional career. Combined with donations from other groups, Yoder has received just over $34,000 from the gun rights lobby, putting him among the top ten financial beneficiaries among currently sitting Congressmen through 2016, according to an analysis by POLITICO.

Yoder maintains a massive fundraising advantage over the field of challengers filed to run against him. The latest FEC filing shows that he has nearly $2 million cash on hand.

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About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Johnson County Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

His reporting has appeared in the Kansas City Star, The Pitch and The New York Times, among other publications.

Senter was the recipient of the Johnson County Community College Headliner Award in 2023.

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