Democrats Outraise Republicans in Every Top Senate Election

  • Harrison collects $22 million in tight South Carolina race
  • Maine’s Gideon had most cash left for final weeks
By Greg Giroux

Democratic candidates raised more money than Republicans in every battleground Senate race in the first two weeks of October, according to pre-general election reports due Thursday.

Democrats raised a cumulative $83.3 million Oct. 1-14 in the 14 Senate races the nonpartisan Cook Political Report presently rates as competitive. That’s more than twice the $35.5 million their Republican opponents collected.

The figures were disclosed to the Federal Election Commission in the last full campaign-finance documents candidates filed before the Nov. 3 election.

The party is seeking to parlay its candidates’ fundraising strength into winning a majority of seats. Democrats control 47 Senate seats, compared with 53 for Republicans, and need a net gain of at least three seats to win the majority.

bar chart of amounts raised by candidates october 1-14

Cook rates seven races as Toss-ups, gives Democrats the edge for two GOP-held seats, and favors Republicans to pick up one. The four other competitively rated seats lean toward the party currently holding them.

All 14 Democrats raised at least $3 million during the two-week period, except for Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), an underdog against former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville (R).

But Jones outspent his opponent 6 to 1. Al Gross (I), running with the support of Democrats, outspent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) in Alaska by about the same. And Barbara Bollier (D) in Kansas spent more than eight times as much as Rep. Roger Marshall (R). Democrats outspent Republicans in all but two of the 14 races, with Montana and Texas the exceptions.

South Carolina’s Jaime Harrison (D) topped all candidates with $22 million raised in the two-week period — an even faster clip than his record-breaking $58 million third-quarter haul. Harrison raised $109 million for his campaign through Oct. 14.

Harrison is challenging Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R), whose $9 million in receipts in the pre-general period was the second-highest among all Senate candidates. The next-highest total came from Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who raised $7.4 million and saw a fundraising boost after appeals to donors to help shore up one of the party’s only vulnerable seats.

Maine’s Sara Gideon (D) was the most cash-rich candidate on Oct. 14, with $20.7 million left to spend against Sen. Susan Collins (R).

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Giroux in Washington at ggiroux@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kyle Trygstad at ktrygstad@bgov.com; Bennett Roth at broth@bgov.com

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