Georgia Midterm Runoff Draws Whopping $262m in Funding

Even before the contest in Georgia between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker headed for a Dec. 6 runoff, a staggering $262 million had already been spent on the race.

The election is expected to unleash an advertising blitz and massive fundraising pull. 

Control of the U.S. Senate possibly hinges on the Georgia election. It is expected that the advertising budget will approach the historic runoffs in Georgia two years ago. It was the most expensive race ever. A staggering $515 million was spent on the election between Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff, which Ossoff won in a runoff in January 2021.

So far in this midterm election in Georgia, spending by the Warnock and Walker campaigns and outside groups totals $262 million, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. For a midterm, that ranks second to the $372 million spent on this year’s Senate race in Pennsylvania.

For months, Georgians have been inundated with television ads about Walker and Warnock, and political experts say there are likely very few voters who have not made up their minds.

A few thousand votes could make a difference in the election. 

The campaigns are expected to continue to flood the airwaves while investing big in get-out-the-vote efforts. Outside groups are also expected to ramp up spending on negative attack ads.

Experts predict at least $100 million more in outside spending through Dec. 6.

The runoff was triggered automatically because Warnock, while narrowly leading Walker with more than 99 percent of the vote counted from Tuesday’s election, failed to reach the 50% threshold needed to secure outright victory under Georgia law.

Warnock, a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Atlanta church civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led, first won his seat in a runoff in January 2021.

The Democrats currently control the evenly-split Senate with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris. 

This latest runoff in Georgia could determine whether the Democrats cede the majority to the Republicans for the remainder of President Joe Biden’s term.