Jim Marchant — the one-time assemblyman now running to be the Republican candidate to take on Democrat Rep. Steven Horsford in Congressional District 4 — announced Wednesday that his campaign raised more than $156,000 in the last quarter of 2019, pushing his cash on hand to just over $209,000 and his yearly fundraising total above $330,000. 

Marchant is one among a crowded, seven-person GOP field jockeying for the chance to take on Horsford in November. Even so, his campaign is just one of two, alongside former Miss Nevada Lisa Song Sutton, to be selected for “on-the-radar” status with the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns” program, a nationwide program meant to boost fledgling GOP campaigns in competitive districts. 

Marchant and the Republican field at large have largely lagged behind Horsford in the fundraising race. Horsford announced earlier this month that his campaign raised more than $455,000 in the fourth quarter, pushing his cash on hand past $1 million and his total on the year past $1.6 million. 

Winning the seat may prove an uphill battle for Republicans. Though the geographically sprawling district encompasses much of the state’s rural center, it also includes much of the Las Vegas metro area, including all of North Las Vegas. 

Voter registration statistics from December show 41 percent of voters are registered Democrats, compared to 31 percent registered as Republican. In raw numbers, it’s a gap of more than 36,000 — one only expected to increase with the implementation of the state’s new automatic voter registration law. 

And, since its creation in 2012, the district has been held by Democrats in all but one cycle. That includes two non-consecutive terms by Horsford, who lost his 2014 re-election bid to challenger Cresent Hardy after low-turnout across the state boosted Republicans to nearly every major office.