If Republican nominee Herschel Walker loses in Tuesday’s Georgia Senate runoff election against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, one contributing factor will be a lack of air cover.
In the month-long campaign battle in Georgia, Warnock and allied Democratic outside groups outspent Walker and GOP aligned groups by a roughly two-to-one margin.
The margin was $57.2 million for Democrats to $27.3 million for Republicans, according to data from Nov. 9-Dec. 5 provided by AdImpact, a nationally known ad tracking firm.
The biggest spender was the Warnock campaign, at $27.3 million, compared to just $11.5 million by Walker’s team. Campaigns get more bang for their bucks than outside groups such as super PACs when it comes to TV commercial rates.
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Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker, left, and Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock speak at separate Election Night watch parties on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Atlanta.
(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Helping to fuel the disparity was the ferocious fundraising by Warnock — who easily out raised Walker during both the general election and runoff campaigns.
The Democrats domination in the ad wars vastly accelerated during the runoff contest.
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“During the general, Dem advertisers made up 53% of total spending. During the runoff, that number grew to 68%,” AdImpact tweeted.
AdImpact noted that 59% of all spending during the runoff was placed on broadcast television.
Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock, right, and Jon Ossoff of Georgia wave to students before speaking at a Dawgs for Warnock rally at the University of Georgia Dec. 4, 2022 in Athens, Georgia.
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Two years ago, Warnock, the minister at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached, and now-Sen. Jon Ossoff swept Georgia’s twin Senate runoff elections, handing the Senate majority to the Democrats.
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This time around, the Senate majority has already been decided, but whether the Democrats grab some breathing room in their razor-thin control of the chamber is on the line in the last ballot box showdown of the 2022 midterm elections.
This year’s runoff was necessitated after Warnock led Walker — a former college and professional football star — by roughly 37,000 votes out of nearly 4 million cast in November’s general election. However, since neither candidate topped 50% of the vote required by Georgia law to secure victory, the race headed to a runoff.
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According to AdImpact, $84.5 million has already been spent to run ads in the runoff. That brings to over $376 million spent this cycle in Georgia’s Senate election, making it the most expensive race across the country in the 2022 election cycle.
