Saira Rao, a Denver Democrat, said Friday her campaign received contributions from more than 500 individual donors within a month of launching her primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who is serving her 11th term representing Colorado’s 1st Congressional District.

“We are not taking any corporate PAC money,” Rao said in a statement. “Special interests are robbing people of their voices, and I am not going to play that game. We’re doing this the hard way – dollar by dollar, door by door.”

Rao filed paperwork to run in the heavily Democratic district on Jan. 10; her campaign logged its 500th donor on Wednesday, 28 days in, a campaign spokeswoman said. By late Thursday, the campaign counted 509 donors, she added.

Rao has cleared “six figures” in contributions, her campaign manager, JoyAnn Ruscha, told Colorado Politics, but she declined to elaborate.

Campaign finance reports covering the period are due to the Federal Election Commission April 15.

DeGette’s campaign reported raising just under $430,000 through the 4th Quarter of 2017, including just under $200,000 from individuals and $230,000 from political action committees. On Dec. 31, her campaign had about $66,000 cash on hand.

Rao, 43, is an attorney and co-founder of the media and publishing company In This Together Media.

Two other Democrats, David Sedbrook and Michelle Hudson Hale, are also running in the 1st District, which includes Denver, Glendale, Englewood, Sheridan, Cherry Hills Village and parts of Jefferson County in the southwest metro area.

Three Republicans are campaigning for the seat – John Field, Jeremiah Vialpando and 2016 GOP nominee Casper Stockham.

Field was the only one of DeGette’s challengers to file a campaign finance report covering fundraising in 2017. His most recent report shows $100 total contributions for the year with $100 on hand Jan. 1.

Sedbrook told Colorado Politics his fundraising for the most recent quarter fell just shy of the $5,000 threshold that triggers a requirement to file a report. He said his campaign passed the mark in early January.