Republican U.S. Sen Richard Burr of North Carolina has raised nearly $1.8 million toward a re-election campaign that has yet to have an opponent.

With money from previous campaigns, Burr has $2.4 million on hand, according to a new report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

“We’re just now getting the campaign started,” Burr strategist Paul Shumaker said Monday. “We’ve not done a lot of extensive fundraising over the last four years. It’s a good starting point.”

Burr is gearing up for a third term. Though filing for the office doesn’t open until February, no Democrat – or other Republican – has emerged as a challenger.

At the same period in 2013, more than a year before her re-election, Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan had raised nearly $4 million in her bid for a second term.

She lost last fall to Republican Thom Tillis in the nation’s most expensive Senate race ever. Together the candidates and outside groups spent more than $118 million.