Senate Republicans have recruited a longtime political operative to oversee fundraising efforts ahead of two crucial Georgia runoff elections.
According to Politico, former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove will serve as the national finance chair for the Georgia Battleground Fund, a joint fundraising account formed by the National Senatorial Committee aimed at helping Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue retain their seats.
Rove is joined by a number of other high-profile Republicans to try and raise money for the two GOP senators, whose elections will determine which party will control the Senate next year.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Dan Quayle, and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley will serve as honorary co-chairs of the fund. National co-chairs will include former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Georgia GOP chairman Alec Poitevint.
Several other prominent Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, are set to go campaign in Georgia, which has entered swing state territory after President-elect Joe Biden secured the state’s Electoral College votes in the presidential election.
Georgia, which is normally reliably red, hadn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.
While Perdue was ahead of his Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, in the general election, he did not meet the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff election. Loeffler will face Raphael Warnock after she made it through a crowded race, which included Republican Rep. Doug Collins.
Republican officials haven’t revealed how much money they want to raise, but people involved in the campaign say the parties will likely spend hundreds of millions of dollars in Georgia in the next two months.
Georgia is in the middle of a hand recount for the presidential election, a labor-intensive process that began last week. The recount was demanded by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last week and must be concluded by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, which will mark 15 days after voting in the election ended.
The results for all of Georgia’s 159 counties will be released once all counties complete their count, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
