U.S. Sen. David Perdue reported raising about $5.6 million over the last three months of his campaign against Democrat Jon Ossoff, and he ended the third quarter with about $8.2 million in cash on hand for the final stretch.
Though Ossoff far out-raised Perdue – he collected more than $21.3 million between July and September – the two both enter this phase of their campaign with roughly the same amount in the bank. Ossoff reported about $8.3 million in cash on hand.
The first-term Republican also raised an additional $1.4 million for a pro-Perdue political action committee.
Most polls show Ossoff and Perdue locked in a razor-thin race for a U.S. Senate seat, and several well-known prognosticators have rated the contest a “tossup.”
With control of the U.S. Senate potentially at stake, the rival campaigns and their allies have flooded the airwaves with TV ads. More than $120 million has so far been spent or reserved on ads promoting Ossoff or Perdue, eclipsing previous state spending records.
Some operatives and activists are girding for a January runoff, which would be required if no candidate secures a majority of the vote. Libertarian Shane Hazel has negligible support in many polls, but with margins so tight, siphoning even a small percentage of votes could be enough to force overtime.
The other U.S. Senate race in Georgia is virtually assured of reaching a runoff. In that 20-candidate race for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s seat, Democratic frontrunner Raphael Warnock previously disclosed that he raised nearly $13 million in the three-month period.
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