Cash flows into Minnesota's Secretary of State race

The race to run Minnesota's elections is already attracting serious money.

Driving the news: Secretary of State Steve Simon raised $397,000 for his re-election bid in 2021, a spokesman told Axios, significantly outpacing recent campaigns for the state's top election official.

• The incumbent Democrat entered 2022 with more than $450,000 in his campaign account.

The big picture: Record-breaking cash is expected to influence secretary of state races across the nation this year, as both parties put renewed attention on the posts following the 2020 election, Axios' Stef W. Kight reports.

Context: Simon's haul, set to be reported in a year-end campaign finance filing next week, is more than three times what he raised at this time in the 2018 campaign and more than twice what he raised the year before his 2014 bid for the seat.

The other side: Several Republicans, including former conservative think tank official Kim Crockett and business owner Kelly Jahner-Byrne, are vying for the nomination to challenge Simon in November.

• Neither campaign responded to a request for comment on their fundraising totals.

Of note: While Simon had the whole year to raise cash, his rivals' reports will only cover the several weeks following their late 2021 candidacy announcements.

The bottom line: Expect election integrity and voting access to be big issues for both parties up and down the ballot this fall.