Democrat Jon Ossoff will report raising more than $21.3 million over the last three months of his campaign to oust U.S Sen. David Perdue, and he ended the third-quarter with about $8.3 million in cash on hand for the final stretch.
Ossoff’s campaign said his haul is the largest-ever fundraising quarter for a U.S. Senate race in Georgia, thanks to more than 600,000 contributions of the three-month period between July 1 and Sept. 30. The average contribution was roughly $35, and 97% of the donations were under $100, his aides said.
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.” Perdue, a former Fortune 500 chief executive, has also built a formidable warchest, though his latest figures weren’t immediately available.
The Democrat has honed a reputation as a prodigious fundraiser since his 2017 special election bid for a U.S. House district in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. He raised roughly $30 million during that campaign, setting new fundraising records for a U.S. House race.
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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