U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan saw his fundraising numbers improve in the fourth quarter, but they were far from great.

Ryan, D-Howland, raised $137,882 and spent $80,590 during the final three months of 2019, so he didn’t net much money.

It was an uptick for Ryan who raised $30,255 and $42,883 in the second and third quarters of 2019, respectively. He spent $58,114 in the second quarter and $41,167 in the third.

Compare him to U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge Township, who raised $410,447 in the fourth quarter or U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, who collected $250,111 in those three months.

Those two are among the strongest fundraisers in the state’s House delegation. What’s particularly impressive about Johnson is his 6th Congressional District is one of the poorest in the state, yet he always attracts a lot of donors.

Regarding Ryan, of the $137,882 he raised in those three months, $16,893 was money transferred from his unsuccessful presidential campaign, which had significant financial problems of its own before he shut it down.

That means 12.3 percent of all the money Ryan raised in the fourth quarter came from cash he had left in his presidential account.

Also, $105,800, an overwhelming majority of what else Ryan raised, came from political action committees with $15,133 from individual donors — and $56 from “other receipts” and “offsets to operating expenses.” PACs drive congressional fundraising, but Ryan needs a better balance between them and people.

As of Dec. 31, Ryan had $98,342 in his campaign fund. That isn’t much.

Without a primary election opponent, Ryan can focus more attention on raising money for the general election. For all of 2019, Ryan’s congressional campaign raised $297,165 — less than Joyce raised in the last three months of the year.

Ryan was running for president during a large chunk of that time, but with that folly over, he has to get down to business.

Ryan also needs to stop spending so much of what he raises, which is something he’s struggled to do in the past.

However, among the seven Republicans seeking to challenge Ryan in the general election, one of them raised an amount of money close to Ryan.

That was Louis G. Lyras of Campbell, and that’s because he’s run a self-funded campaign so far.

Lyras gave $90,000 in personal loans to his campaign during the fourth quarter. He’s provided $125,000 in loans to his campaign since 2018 and has paid back $6,000 of it.

Take away his loans and Lyras raised $262 from donors in the fourth quarter. His website has a donation page. It seems that at least as of Dec. 31, few have used it.

Four of the seven Republicans in the race didn’t report raising any money during the final three months of last year.

Perhaps the most surprising result came from Christina M. Hagan, the lone GOP candidate in the 13th Congressional District race who’s held elected office. She served as a state representative from March 2011 to December 2018.

Hagan’s decision to run for the seat came relatively late compared with the other Republican candidates. But Hagan of Marlboro Township had a few weeks to raise money and reported a mere $100 contribution from herself.

The March 17 primary is coming up fast. Hagan has shown she can raise money to compete, but this wasn’t a good start to her candidacy.

She lost the 2018 Republican primary for the 16th Congressional District seat — that primary was in May compared to March for this one — and raised $465,139 for that race.

In the 2018 primary, Hagan declared for that seat 13 months before the primary compared to four months prior to this one, and had already raised $292,064 in 2017.

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.