The Devin Nunes fundraising juggernaut pressed forward during the final three months of last year, with the California congressman accumulating $2.1 million to finish with $7.2 million on hand to spend on his 2020 reelection bid.

As the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes has been at the center of his party’s effort to defend President Trump against impeachment. It is hardly a new role. Nunes has aggressively defended Trump against Democratic charges of impropriety since the president was inaugurated three years ago, and grassroots Republicans have rewarded him by contributing tens of millions of dollars in small donations.

Nunes’s fourth-quarter 2019 fundraising was confirmed by sources closed to the congressman’s political operation. The Federal Election Commission reporting deadline is Jan. 31.

The congressman's fundraising is on par with that of many senators running in competitive races. And with more than $7 million in the bank at the outset of the election year, his coffers are among the most flush of any incumbent House member.

Nunes, 46, spent a majority of his nine terms in Congress as an obscure member focused on issues pertaining to his agricultural, Republican-leaning district in California’s Central Valley. But as a prominent Trump defender during the Russia investigation and then the impeachment process, Nunes became one of the best-known Republicans in the country — and among the most popular with the conservative grassroots.

The congressman has used that notoriety to build a fundraising machine. Nunes attracts more contributions from internet and direct-mail solicitations than perhaps any other congressional Republican and is a sought-after headliner on the GOP fundraising circuit. Nunes’s House seat is considered safe by 2020 prognosticators, but that has not stopped him from taking precautions.

The congressman is investing in robust field and data programs proprietary to his campaign, and he records a podcast that he uses to raise money nationally and communicate with constituents in his district.