Democrats outspend Republicans two-to-one in Georgia Senate runoff ad wars

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Weather could play big role in Georgia Senate runoff

Brian Robinson, former spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal, analyzes early voting in the Senate race between Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

If Republican nominee Herschel Walker loses in Tuesday's Georgia Senate runoff election against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, one contributing factor will be a lack of air cover.

In the month-long campaign battle in Georgia, Warnock and allied Democratic outside groups outspent Walker and GOP aligned groups by a roughly two-to-one margin.

The margin was $57.2 million for Democrats to $27.3 million for Republicans, according to data from Nov. 9-Dec. 5 provided by AdImpact, a nationally known ad tracking firm.

The biggest spender was the Warnock campaign, at $27.3 million, compared to just $11.5 million by Walker's team. Campaigns get more bang for their bucks than outside groups such as super PACs when it comes to TV commercial rates.

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Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker, left, and Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock speak at separate Election Night watch parties on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson | AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Helping to fuel the disparity was the ferocious fundraising by Warnock — who easily out raised Walker during both the general election and runoff campaigns.

The Democrats domination in the ad wars vastly accelerated during the runoff contest.

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"During the general, Dem advertisers made up 53% of total spending. During the runoff, that number grew to 68%," AdImpact tweeted.

AdImpact noted that 59% of all spending during the runoff was placed on broadcast television. 

Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock, right, and Jon Ossoff of Georgia wave to students before speaking at a Dawgs for Warnock rally at the University of Georgia Dec. 4, 2022 in Athens, Georgia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Two years ago, Warnock, the minister at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached, and now-Sen. Jon Ossoff swept Georgia’s twin Senate runoff elections, handing the Senate majority to the Democrats.

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This time around, the Senate majority has already been decided, but whether the Democrats grab some breathing room in their razor-thin control of the chamber is on the line in the last ballot box showdown of the 2022 midterm elections.

This year’s runoff was necessitated after Warnock led Walker — a former college and professional football star — by roughly 37,000 votes out of nearly 4 million cast in November’s general election. However, since neither candidate topped 50% of the vote required by Georgia law to secure victory, the race headed to a runoff.

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According to AdImpact, $84.5 million has already been spent to run ads in the runoff. That brings to over $376 million spent this cycle in Georgia's Senate election, making it the most expensive race across the country in the 2022 election cycle.