Tomorrow is the last day for early voting in the Senate runoff race. Election day – in case the redwood worth of mailers you have likely gotten has not made it clear – is a week from today. Polls are showing both races neck and neck and it looks like turnout of the party bases, or lack thereof, is going to be the key.
All four candidates have raised enough money to buy as much airtime as they may like, and of course the endless stream of mailers, but let’s take one last look at just how much money we are talking about here. As we learned in November, money can only get you so far. In neighboring South Carolina, Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison raised something like $130 million for his race against Republican Lindsey Graham. Graham won by 10%.
That said, more money can’t hurt (or can it? There is some speculation that the incredible amount of money Jon Ossoff raised in his race against Karen Handel for a Congressional seat back in 2017 actually raised the profile of the race for all voters and helped to drive turnout for Handel in addition to Ossoff himself).
Fundraising reports for the Georgia Senate candidates were submitted on Christmas Eve and the numbers are mind-boggling. Democratic challengers Ossoff and Warnock raised more than $200 million between them over the last two months – with $106 million for Ossoff and $103 million for Warnock.
The Republican candidates Loeffler and Perdue raised somewhat significantly less funds, with $64 million for Loeffler and $68 million for Perdue.
All four candidates are benefitting financially from the race being such a national story. A recent report from Bloomberg noted that Ossoff and Warnock are getting 96% of their online donations from out of state, while Loeffler and Perdue are running at about 92% out of state.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Democratic hotbed California is the top donor to the challengers, with more than $26 million. New York has contributed nearly $11 million.
The Republican candidates haul from outside states is a little more spread out, with more than $6 million from California, Texas and Florida.
The outside groups is where these races really go over the top in spending – and where Republicans come roaring back in the fundraising battle. Outside groups have spent more than $200 million on the race since the November 3 election. Republicans have seen $133 million of that, compared to just $63 million for the Democrats. With no limit on donating to outside groups, wealthy donors can write very large checks, such as the Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange Jeffrey Sprecher, also known as the husband to Kelly Loeffler.
One interesting item is who has not necessarily been spending a lot of money on the race, President Donald Trump. The president has been aggressively fundraising since November but most of that money is going towards Trump’s own PAC, with a small amount going to the Republican National Committee which has invested $20 million into the runoffs.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (who wants to keep that “Majority” title) and his PAC the Senate Leadership Fund have spent the most of any group in the race, more than $30 million.
