Once in Congress, raising money becomes considerably easier.

The longer you’re there, the more cash you collect — particularly from political action committees as they love winners and those who they view as allies or at least those who can help them.

U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, is serving his seventh two-year term representing the 14th Congressional District, which has Trumbull as its second most-populous county behind Lake.

Joyce’s campaign always has excelled at raising money. Serving on the House Appropriations Committee and as chairman of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee also makes him a key member of Congress.

In the 2024 cycle, Joyce faced Democrat Brian Bob Kenderes, who didn’t campaign and was convicted of a felony count of filing a false voter registration before the election.

There was never a doubt that Joyce would win.

But Joyce raised $2.5 million during the last campaign with $1.58 million coming from PACs.

In the first quarter of this year, as he plans to run in 2026 for an eighth term, Joyce received $263,185 in campaign contributions with $160,891 coming from PACs. That included $5,000 maximum contributions from 16 committees. Those 16 contributions made up almost one-third of the total money he received in the first quarter.

Plenty of the maximum contributions came from the PACs of companies that do business with the federal government and the PACs of organizations that lobby Congress.

Joyce received $5,000 maximum contributions from three PACs that represent various nurse organizations as he serves as co-chairman of the Congressional Nursing Caucus and his wife, Kelly, is a nurse.

Joyce has so much money in his campaign fund that he made $10,442 in interest in the first quarter of this year.

It also considerably helps if you’re a member of Congress, like Joyce, who is in a safe Republican district and consistently does better than expected based on the district’s voting results.

Joyce often raises more money than he spends. In the first quarter, he spent $71,073 – 27% of what he raised.

Including the money Joyce carried over from previous elections, he had $2,934,987 in his campaign fund as of March 31. There is little doubt his surplus will exceed $3 million when the reports for the second quarter are filed in mid-July.

Democrat Bill O’Neill of Chagrin Falls, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice and ex-11th District Court of Appeals judge, said he plans to run for Joyce’s seat next year. Not only won’t O’Neill be able to financially compete against Joyce, he doesn’t plan to try. O’Neill said he won’t accept any campaign contributions.

Republican Mark Zetzer of Russell said he is strongly considering challenging Joyce in next year’s primary. Zetzer filed and then withdrew from the 2024 Republican primary after two others also filed to challenge Joyce in the primary. Joyce got 76.7% of the vote in the three-way primary last year.

As I previously mentioned, PACs love incumbents.

But if you’ve been serving for less than a year, like U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, the money doesn’t flow as freely to you as someone with Joyce’s years in Congress.

Rulli was elected last June in a special election to represent the 6th Congressional District with Mahoning as its most-populous county.

Right after that election, the PAC money started to freely flow to Rulli’s campaign.

In the 20 days after Rulli’s June 11 win, he received $40,500 from PACs.

In 2024’s third quarter, July to September, the first full quarter after Rulli won the special election by 9.3%, he received $250,095 with $155,786, 62% of what he raised, coming from PACs. Before that, very little PAC money went to Rulli.

Rulli ended 2024 raising $1.15 million with $445,336 from PACs. Much of that PAC money came after Rulli won the special election.

Rulli would go on to win the November general election by 33.4% — exceeding the typical margin of victory in the safe Republican district.

In the first quarter of this year, Rulli raised $135,829 with $90,050 from PACs. He received only two $5,000 maximum PAC contributions in the quarter.

Rulli also got $6,600 from Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close adviser to President Donald Trump.

After spending much of his campaign funds to get elected last year, Rulli is working to build up that war chest. He has a long way to go as it sat at $117,555 as of March 31.

Rulli serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee so he should expect to get plenty more PAC money as the years go by.

Democrat Michael L. Kripchak of Youngstown, who twice lost to Rulli in congressional elections last year, said he is planning to run for the seat next year.

David Skolnick covers politics for The Vindicator and the Tribune Chronicle.