Stacey Abrams will report collecting more than $11.5 million over much of the last month and will end the latest fundraising period with $5.6 million in the bank for her rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp.
Her campaign collected about $6 million and a leadership committee that can tap unlimited contributions raised another $5.5 million. Her campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo said the money has financed an “unprecedented, multi-pronged get-out-the-vote operation.”
Abrams outraised Kemp in the final period, which stretches from Oct. 1-25. The governor amassed roughly $8 million over that span but ended with more cash in the bank than his rival, with $10 million left in his coffers.
The Democrat has recently cut back her TV ad spending and shifted more resources toward digital efforts, Groh-Wargo said. Abrams reserved less than $1 million a week on TV ads the last two weeks, including about $800,000 this week. Her campaign had spent more than double that amount in previous weeks.
By contrast, Kemp is spending almost $3 million in the final week. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat in a tight reelection battle, has reserved almost $3.5 million worth of ads for the last seven days of the race.
Both rivals have far surpassed their fundraising totals from four years ago, when they shattered state records. Since then, Georgia has emerged as one of the nation’s premier battleground states and Abrams and Kemp have become national figures.
And both campaigns have invested tremendous resources into a grassroots apparatus that’s helped set midterm turnout records during this stage of the early voting period, with more than 1.6 million ballots already cast.
In all, Kemp has raised nearly $69 million for his reelection bid, while Abrams has collected roughly $97 million.
Trailing in the polls, Abrams and her allies have highlighted the party’s get-out-the-vote machine. Groh-Wargo said the campaign is “outspending and outmaneuvering Brian Kemp on radio, digital and in the field” to meet voters where they are.
“As our record-setting grassroots fundraising operation shows,” she said, “voters understand the stakes in the election.”
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