ATLANTA – Rev. Raphael G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Democratic opponents in the second round of the Senate in Georgia, have each raised more than $ 100 million since October – huge sums that have surpassed their Republican opponents by a significant margin and they underscored the Democrats’ confidence after recent gains the party made in the state and its hopes of winning the Senate.
The disputes attracted a wave of attention and investment from outside Georgia, due to the risks, and the campaign only intensified in the last few weeks before the second round, which is scheduled for January 5.
Senator David Perdue, one of the Republican representatives, raised $ 68 million in the period between October 15 and December 16, according to reports from the Federal Election Commission made public on Thursday. Senator Kelly Loeffler, the other Republican, raised about $ 64 million during that period.
Ossoff, who is running against Perdue, became the best-funded Senate candidate in history after raising $ 106.7 million, according to the documents, and Warnock, who is challenging Loeffler, raised $ 103.3 million. .
The Democrats’ campaign was largely driven by a flurry of smaller donations collected across the country, the files show, with almost half of the funds coming from people who donated less than $ 200.
For Mr. Perdue and Mrs. Loeffler, smaller donations represented less than 30% of what they raised.
Mr. Ossoff, who runs a media production company, spent $ 93.5 million during that period and had $ 17.4 million in cash, and Mr. Warnock, pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, spent $ 86 , 1 million and had $ 22.7 million in cash in hand. Mr. Perdue spent $ 57.8 million and had $ 16 million in cash, and Ms. Loeffler spent $ 48.6 million and had $ 21.2 million in cash.
Loeffler, one of the richest members of the Senate, was the only candidate to contribute to his own campaign, donating $ 333,200 – far less than the $ 23 million of his own money he spent on the general election campaign.
The numbers in the files only affirm a level of investment that has been clearly visible to Georgia voters for months. Campaign ads fill virtually all commercial breaks on television and radio. Spending has even crossed state lines, as candidates and outside groups have bought time in markets like Jacksonville, Florida, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, to reach Georgia voters living nearby.
The amounts brought in by both Democrats exceeded the $ 57 million raised by Jaime Harrison in his campaign in South Carolina against Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was the highest quarterly fundraiser for any Senate candidate in U.S. history. Even so, the race turned out to be a disappointment for Democrats, demonstrating that record fights don’t necessarily translate into electoral success.
But in Georgia, Democrats have been spurred on by a string of recent successes in a state that until recently was Republican. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win in Georgia since 1992.
Biden and President Trump traveled to campaign for their party’s candidates. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter, made campaign stops in Georgia last week.
Democrats focused on negotiations over actions their opponents took while serving in the Senate and in supporting Trump in his efforts to reverse his defeat in Georgia.
Republicans largely turned to Warnock, with Loeffler calling him a “radical liberal” more than a dozen times in a recent televised debate. Her campaign also circulated selected quotes from his more than two decades of sermons, including a case in which he said “no one can serve God and the military,” a theme that has roots in biblical passages.
A coalition of African American pastors published an open letter to Mrs. Loeffler last week condemning her campaign for what they considered an attack on the Black Church. Political observers in Georgia also argued that it damaged the relationship that Republicans had with Ebenezer, the congregation that was once led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Still, in Christmas messages, one day practically without a campaign, Loeffler and Warnock sounded a similar note, describing last year’s turmoil and predicting a change for the better.
“With Christmas, new light and new hope come,” said Loeffler in a video he posted on social media.
“I know that many are heartbroken tonight,” Warnock said in his own Twitter post, “and the holidays don’t seem to improve that. It’s been a long time since night and Christmas may never seem to come. But don’t be afraid. Dawn is coming. Good news and hope are on the horizon. “