Wilt presses uphill battle against Morelle

Rep. Joe Morelle heads into Tuesday’s primary with a vast financial advantage over challenger Robin Wilt—more than $1.5 million raised compared to Wilt’s $40,153, according to federal campaign finance disclosures. But Wilt continues to campaign hard in her third attempt to beat Morelle.

Morelle began this race with a big financial edge. He listed $380,204 cash on hand at the end of 2024, and Wilt had $1,969 in 2020, which are the years each last ran for this seat.

The latest pre-primary reports continue to show a vast gap between the two candidates in both fundraising and spending. In the current cycle, which covers January 2025 to June 3, 2026, Morelle has spent $1.55 million and has $352,146 in cash on hand. In contrast, Wilt has spent $38,221 and has $3,881 in cash on hand.

In her other two runs for the seat, Wilt fared better financially. In 2018, she raised and spent around $76,000. In 2020, her contributions and disbursements were over $160,000.

Another candidate in this primary, Sherita Traywick, a pastor and the founder of Young & Gifted Ministries, has raised $1,905 and spent $3,289 from January 2025 to March 2026.

A longtime politician in the area, Morelle worked his way up from representing the town of Irondequoit to eventually winning his congressional seat in 2018. He has pitched himself as an experienced legislator who will fight the current Republican administration which has, in his view, “undermined our democracy.”

Wilt, on the other hand, blames Morelle and the Democratic establishment for not pushing harder against President Donald Trump’s actions. Throughout her political career, which includes serving as a Brighton town council member and her unsuccessful runs for the congressional seat, she has signaled that her views lean further left than Morelle’s.

On the attack

Wilt has been attempting to play offense against Morelle in the final days before the election. She launched an attack on the incumbent based on his recent mailers, and TV and digital advertisements paid for by the Think Big PAC.

Although the materials do not mention AI, Think Big’s website proclaims its mission is to back Democratic candidates who “champion a pro-innovation, pro-AI vision” and will ensure that “America remains the global leader in artificial intelligence.”

According to Federal Election Commission records, Think Big’s $10 million in funding primarily comes from another PAC, Leading the Future, which lists over $125 million in its coffers.

That PAC is funded by donations from Silicon Valley venture capitalists Marc Andreessen, Benjamin Horowitz, and their firm, a16z. Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, and his wife, Anna, also contributed $12.5 million each. All have donated to and supported President Donald Trump in the past. 

Perplexity, an AI software company, and the Virginia-based Chain Bridge Bank also contributed to Leading the Future.

“Joe Morelle is taking a gift from Trump’s biggest backers and won’t explain why,” Wilt says. “I will fight to protect New York workers, children, and communities from unchecked AI. Joe Morelle is apparently fine letting Silicon Valley make that decision for him.”

Leading the Future aims to pursue deregulation and federal preemption for AI technology, something she says Morelle has not made any public comment on.

Morelle introduced legislation intended to combat non-consensual deepfake pornography in 2023 and recently posted on social media that “strong guardrails around AI” were needed in election advertisements.

Wilt further accuses Morelle of “red-boxing,” a tactic used to circumnavigate campaign finance laws by allowing candidates to coordinate with PACs. She says messaging, photographs, and videos are posted on his website for use by PACs.

“Tech oligarchs don’t spend money without expecting something in return,” Wilt says. “They’re investing in Joe Morelle because they believe he’ll deliver for them. Rochester voters deserve to know what they’re buying.”

Morelle did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

By the numbers

Over half of Morelle’s contributions come from political action committees. The largest contributors in that category include the incumbent’s own committee, the Morelle Victory Fund ($168,200), and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee ($76,450).

Wilt has criticized Morelle’s acceptance of money from PACs in the past, with AIPAC money receiving particular attention. She has also called Israeli attacks against Palestinians and the occupation of Gaza part of an “ongoing genocide” in the region.

The other 223 PAC contributors for Morelle include political groups like the center-left pragmatic New Democrat Coalition; the Democratic Action Network, which aims to flip Republican seats; and Defend the Vote, an organization advocating for ballot access.

Lobbies for national brands, such as Amazon, Pfizer, Nike, Draft Kings, Uber, Dunkin’, Verizon, and State Farm, and more local ones, like Constellation Brands, L3 Harris, Xerox, and Avangrid (the parent company of RG&E), have contributed funds to Morelle.

PACs affiliated with labor unions make up the last category of contributors supporting Morelle. Industries include unions for engineers, air traffic controllers, automobile dealers, the American Medical Association, carpenters, machinists, transit workers, letter carriers, broadcasters, firefighters and Realtors.

Among individual contributors, donors gave an average of $1,302 per person to Morelle’s campaign.

Jonathan Gray, the president and COO of Blackstone Investment, and his wife, Mindy; Richard Sands, chairman of Constellation Brands, and his wife, Jennifer; and Bloomberg co-founder Thomas Secunda and his wife, Cynthia, each contributed $7,000 over the 2025-2026 period covered in the disclosure report, the maximum limit for individuals. Each of these couples’ net worth is over $1 billion.

Members of the Wilmot family, connected to the Wilmorite real estate development company, gave a combined $15,300 to Morelle’s campaign. Similarly, family members of the real estate company Gallina Development gave $12,150 in total. Other individuals who contributed significant funds include lobbyists and public affairs partners, Richard and Diana Ostroff, and Danny Wegman, chairman of Wegmans.

Most of Morelle’s expenditures were for salaries, consulting fees, transportation costs, and catering. In fact, 189 entries were for catering or facility rentals at locations including Rochester, Washington, D.C., New York City, and San Francisco. 

Wilt’s campaign has been substantially self-funded: a total of $18,250, or 45%, is marked as “contribution from candidate.” 

All other funds come from individual contributions; Wilt lists no money from PACs or other organizations in her disclosures. Of those individuals, none has given more than $2,000, with an average of $475.

Wilt’s spending has primarily been on campaign materials such as signs and T-shirts. However, she also listed fees for Reach Progress, a grassroots organizing and canvassing app; Raise More, a campaign fundraising tool; and Peerly, a peer-to-peer texting platform.

In the 24th Congressional District, two candidates will face off in the Democratic primary: Alissa Ellman and Diana Kastenbaum. The winner will face Republican Claudia Tenney in the general election. Steven Holden was previously set to run in the primary but dropped out last year.

Tenney has raised $2.4 million this election cycle, with $1 million from PACs, $983,927 from individual contributors, and the remainder in transfers from other authorized committees. She had $355,002 in cash on hand from the 2024 cycle.

Ellman, a political newcomer, has raised $167,917 with the majority ($132,820 or 79%) from individual donors. She also listed $17,597 in loans taken out by the candidate.

Kastenbaum has previously ran for government positions in the town of Batavia, but this is her first attempt at a congressional seat. She raised $71,710 for this primary; $39,100 or 54% of that total comes from loans.

Holden, who ran for the District 24 seat two other times, listed $66,496 in contributions for the 2026 election cycle; $44,000 came from Holden himself and he had $11,059 cash on hand to begin with.

 Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.

The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].