Democratic House candidate Tim Canova went on a fundraising spree in the first quarter, hauling in half a million dollars. He'll need that and more as he prepares to challenge Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, in her Florida district this summer.

Canova, a law professor specializing in international trade who once counted Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as a student, has tapped into the same online fundraising stream powering Bernie Sanders (whom Canova has endorsed). But he rejects the characterization that his primary challenge is a House-level proxy war of the Democratic presidential primary.

POLITICO Campaign Pro spoke with Canova about his Democratic litmus tests, how he’ll make his money machine sustainable, and more. The interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Why did you decide to take on the DNC chairwoman?

Ultimately, it dealt much more with her record in Florida than her national record — a real dissatisfaction with her representation of the district. First, I’m a law professor at NOVA Southeastern, the only law school in her district. I’ve been teaching international trade law for years and got involved in … lobbying against the TPP and I could not get any response from her office whatsoever. I sent email to a legislative aide in Washington, and nothing came back to me. This went on for weeks. Second, I’m disappointed with her pattern of taking huge amounts of corporate money and voting for those corporate interests over those of her constituents. On issue after issue, everything has a price for her. Whether it’s trade issues or payday loans or financial regulation or Israeli security, issue after issue, it seems there’s a price. So I decided to run.

What is your path to victory?

I start by contrasting our fundraising. I’m not taking any PAC money, and she’s taking a lot. Over her career, she’s taken hundreds of thousands from banks. So when I lay out the difference in fundraising, how I’m doing it in small donations, both around country and in Florida, and how that contrasts with her record — that resonates immediately with a lot of folks. You see this anti-incumbent mood around this country, too. You start off with those issues and you’ve got a groundswell of support. Then, you add on her votes on economic issues and that resonates further.

You just had a historic fundraising quarter. How did that happen?

It builds slowly. We launched and immediately got attention around the country. DWS will criticize saying a lot comes from out of the state, but we had more individual donors from Florida than she did. Now, the fact that we get a lot of funds out of state, well so does she, and she’s a national leader and the fact that we can raise so much is an indictment of her leadership. Another instance of when we raised a lot of money happened when I was woke up to the news that Obama had endorsed her. When I read the endorsement, it was printed in the Miami Herald, I laughed. It was a very tepid, general statement — a boilerplate endorsement where he couldn’t give any examples. I had the feeling it was a good day. We didn’t even try and fundraise off of it. We were silent on it, but we brought in $20,000 or $25,000.

Do you think a race like yours would’ve been possible 15 or 20 years ago, before online fundraising?

No. I don’t.

You’ve invoked Bernie Sanders on the trail, you mention him in your campaign literature, you’ve spoken at his events. Have you been able to draft off of that energy for your own race?

I know it’s characterized that way. My own views and my own positions on issues have developed over a lot of years and there’s a written record of it, well before I even heard about Bernie Sanders. I share a lot of the political agenda of Bernie Sanders, but I share it with Elizabeth Warren. It’s the progressive wing. … I’m very clear and very proud of what I stand for and I think it’s resonating for me the same way it is for Sanders and Warren in the past.

Did you see it working? Was that part of why you’ve invoked him?

I don’t think it was that calculated. I endorsed him long before I got in the race. I supported him from very beginning, way before I became a candidate. Did I think it’d help me raise money? It’s a double-edged sword; it could help and hurt. [But] it’s important to talk about her fundraising practices. If she says I’m opportunistic, well, then I say, look at her opportunism.

If you’re elected to the House, is this going to be a sustainable fundraising model? Even if Sanders is no longer on the ballot?

I do. We’re building an amazing donor list and we’re developing our own brand. If Sanders wins, that’s great. But if he doesn’t, these folks aren’t going to disappear.

Do you want to be an inspiration to other progressives?

Yes, I do. I hope there are a lot of ordinary folks in 2018 who start stepping up and challenging incumbents who are addicted to easy money.

What’s the most important litmus test for Democrats going into primaries?

I firmly we believe we need to clean up money out of politics. They talk about overturning Citizens United, but they’re taking so much money that there’s no realistic chance they’ll do something. It’s just not going to happen. I think that should be a litmus test for insurgents to challenge incumbents in both parties.

You were involved in a dust-up over the use of the state Democratic Party voter file. What happened there?

From what I recall, I called the Florida Democratic Party headquarters and got the deputy. I asked him if my campaign could have access to the state’s voter database software, and he said we could not. He said they have a firm rule that they will not give access to anyone challenging an incumbent Democratic official in a primary.

A few days went by and we started to prepare a possible legal challenge and I sent a letter on a Friday, March 18, to the head of the state Democratic Party. [Over the weekend] we sent out emails to our donors [about the issue] and we posted about it online and social media. In one day, we raised $18,000. It was a good day for us. But then they did back down. They were feeling the heat. We now have access.

Have you talked to Sanders about endorsing you?

No, I haven’t been in touch with him whatsoever. I went to the presidential debate in Miami and I saw him really briefly and shook his hand. I have never reached out to his campaign to seek an endorsement.

How do you feel about this being called a proxy war?

I think it minimizes my life’s work, quite frankly. … I’m not really a member of Bernie Sanders’ army. Is he the leader of the progressive movement? Well, he’s running for the highest office, but it’s a wide ranging movement. And I do disagree with him on important issues. I think he stumbled on Israel. You could say I’m a stronger supporter Israeli security.