Political groups aligned with the Republican Party are not wasting any time in Georgia, opening the spigot to fund an aggressive advertising campaign and robust field operation to boost GOP candidates in a pair of January runoff elections that will determine Senate control.
Per independent expenditure filings with the Federal Election Commission, FreedomWorks has invested more than $232,000, National Victory Action has spent $950,000, the Club for Growth has invested more than $32,000, and Americans for Prosperity, which is affiliated with the Koch network, has spent $440,000. The money is going to back incumbent Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who both hold the GOP’s Senate majority in their hands.
A Democratic sweep in the Jan. 5 runoff elections would leave both parties controlling 50 Senate seats. But with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris wielding the tiebreaking vote, that would be enough to deliver control of the chamber to the Democrats. That has prompted an all-hands-on-deck effort by Republicans and their allies to defend Georgia’s Senate seats — especially after President-elect Joe Biden became the first Democrat since 1992 to win the state’s electoral votes.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee also is expected to be a major player in the campaign. The Senate GOP campaign arm is working with the Perdue and Loeffler campaigns through the jointly run Georgia Battleground Fund on what the Wall Street Journal described as a presidential-level campaign that includes 1,000 ground troops and more than 20 field offices. The effort has raised more than $32 million.
In the Nov. 3 general election, Perdue defeated Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff by 86,637 votes, and Loeffler finished 7 percentage points behind the first-place finisher, Democrat Raphael Warnock, in a crowded special election held the same day. Neither Perdue nor Warnock received 50% of the vote, triggering January runoffs. History would suggest that Perdue and Loeffler have the advantage.
But Democrats are optimistic, and they and their liberal allies are expected to match Republicans on the ground and on the airwaves in a pitched battle for the Senate majority.
