Two runoff elections in Georgia will decide who controls the U.S. Senate come January. But so far, the only outside groups rushing in to support their candidates are aligned with the two Republicans vying for the seats.
Since Election Day, GOP spenders have dropped nearly $2 million backing Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, or attacking their Democratic opponents, Rev. Raphael Warnock and one-time congressional candidate Jon Ossoff. And a whole lot more Republican spending is right around the corner. But so far, not a single Democratic group has reported an independent expenditure in either race since the runoffs became an inevitability.
There are still nearly eight weeks until Georgia voters decide who their next U.S. senators will be. And while some high-dollar Democratic donors say they plan to step up on behalf of their party’s candidates, they’re facing a potential onslaught of Republican cash in the race. Democrats’ slow start, which seems to be due to political exhaustion—as my Daily Beast colleagues have reported—is compounding structural disadvantages that they already face. It’s also dealing a blow to the party’s chances to control both chambers of Congress come January as well as the White House.
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The candidates themselves have been quick out of the gate. Loeffler and Warnock are each airing two ads ahead of their runoff contest, and Ossoff is on the air with one. But when it comes to independent backing from high-dollar political spenders such as super PACs, Democrats are coming up far short of their opposition.
On the Republican side, in contrast, some big names are already stepping up. On Wednesday, Americans for Prosperity Action, a super PAC affiliated with billionaire Charles Koch, dropped $440,000 on digital ads and canvassing expenses in support of Perdue’s runoff bid. On the same day, FreedomWorks, a libertarian-leaning activist group, spent more than $230,000 on canvassing for Perdue and Loeffler.
The National Victory Action Fund, a PAC created in October to back Republicans in competitive Senate contests, has spent $750,000 since Election Day on digital ads backing Loeffler and Perdue. It’s also turned its online donation portal over to Loeffler entirely. Its page on the GOP fundraising platform WinRed now asks for donations that will go directly to Loeffler’s campaign. It also advises donors that it will provide their phone numbers to the Loeffler team, boosting the campaign’s ability to reach out to contributors in the future.
Georgia United Victory, a group created by Loeffler allies to attack her top Republican opponent, Rep. Doug Collins, in November’s special election, immediately pivoted to the runoff when it became clear that neither Loeffler nor Warnock would get the majority of the vote required to win the race outright. On Nov. 4, the day that a runoff contest became an inevitability, the super PAC dropped $75,000 on digital ads attacking Warnock.
Loeffler and Perdue are also getting some support in the form of email marketing from Women Speak Out PAC, the political arm of the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List.
The Democratic candidates have been getting some help via email as well, with various fundraising pleas seeking to stuff their coffers ahead of what’s sure to be an expensive pair of runoffs. But some of those appeals appear to be more about capitalizing on late-cycle fundraising for unrelated efforts. One recent fundraising email from Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), for instance, implored recipients to support Warnock’s “groundbreaking campaign to become Georgia’s first Black Senator.” But click through to the donation page, and contributors were informed that their donations would be split 50-50 between Warnock and Stevens’ own campaign.
Warnock and Ossoff themselves are raising significant amounts of cash with aid from prominent Democrats such as Stacey Abrams, the former state house minority leader and 2018 gubernatorial candidate. But they’re also facing significant headwinds when it comes to bringing in the resources to compete with Perdue and Loeffler.
The situation got direr this week when Facebook announced that it would extend its post-election ban on political advertising. That move, Democrats say, deals a brutal blow to fundraising and organizing efforts ahead of the Georgia runoffs.
“When you take away our ads, campaigns can no longer fundraise, they can no longer recruit volunteers at scale, they’ve totally cut off our campaigns’ ability to do their work,” said Tara McGowan, a leading Democratic digital strategist. “That affects Republicans as well, it’s just that Republicans benefit from media’s reach and influence on the platform to drive their message,” McGowan said. “Our hands are tied because we do not have audiences and infrastructure on platforms like Facebook.”
The structural disadvantages to Democratic fundraising in Georgia are immense. As The Daily Beast reported Thursday, Democratic donors, who funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into losing 2020 Senate contests, are largely tapped out. And the party’s poor showing, compared to late-cycle polling that showed a huge opportunity to win a sizable majority in the chamber, has dispirited many of its financial backers.
The pain is being most acutely felt among Democrats’ largest donors—the people who would be putting up money for an independent spending blitz to counter what Republicans are already mustering in Georgia.
