Republican Senate Candidates Outspent by Democrats in Key States



Recently Breitbart performed a comparative study of fundraising and spending between Republicans and Democrats for key midterm races. As expected GOP was outspent and outraised by a wide margin. 

We first look at Arizona

How much was spent?

GOP candidate Blake Masters spent about $1.00 for every $7.50 spent by sitting Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly. OpenSecrets revealed that Kelly spent $73,477,987 in his successful reelection bid, while Masters only spent $9,412,054.

How much was raised?

Kelly raised an astounding $79.3 million, while Masters managed to raise merely $12 million.

To make matter worse Arizona took ages to count their votes causing some to speculate that malpractices may have occurred behind the scenes.

Kelly won the race, he received around 52 percent of the mandate i.e. 13,22,026 votes while Master managed 46.5% percent of the mandate i.e. 11,96,308

Now for Ohio.

How much was spent?

Sitting Democrat Senator Tim Ryan spent $44.5 million while Republican J.D. Vance only spent $9 million, meaning that the Republican challenger spent roughly $1.00 for every $4.90 that his Democrat opponent spent.

How much was raised?

OpenSecrets revealed that Vance raised $12 million while Ryan raised $47.3 million. Ryan was raised roughly four times more than Vance.

Despite all his shortcomings, Vance won the race perhaps because there are no discrepancies in counting

Vance received around 53 percent of the mandate i.e. 21,47,898 votes while Master managed 46.7% percent of the mandate i.e. 18,83,223

The next state is Nevada

How much was raised?

According to OpenSecrets, Democrat sitting Senator Catherine Cortez Masto raised $52.8 million while Republican Adam Laxalt raised $15.5 million. The Democrats raised 3 times more than the Republican

How much was spent?

Cortez Masto spent $46.6 million while Laxalt spent $12.3 million. Laxalt spent approximately $1.00 for every $3.80 spent by Cortez Masto.

In the end, Catherine Cortez Masto won 48.9% of the mandate with 4,93,443 votes while Adam Laxalt secured 48.9% of the mandate with 4,84,436 votes. The victory for Cortez Masto was by a very narrow margin

Now for another Senate race in Nevada

The contest was between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd

How much was raised?

OpenSecrets revealed that Beasley raised $33.8 million while Budd only raised just over $12.4 million. Beasley raised thrice the amount that Budd raised. 

How much was spent?

Democrat Cheri Beasley spent $30.8 million while Ted Budd spent $12.3 million. The ratio between Beasley and Budd is roughly 3:1.

Despite being significantly outspent, GOP Candidate Ted Budd won comfortably 50.5% of the mandate with 19,05,786 votes while Cheri Beasley secured 47.3% of the mandate with 17,84,049 votes.

Next for Georgia

In this high-profile U.S. Senate race, which is headed to a runoff, Democrat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock vastly outraised and outspent his Republican challenger Herschel Walker. 

How much was raised?

OpenSecrets reveals that Warnock raised $98.6 million while Walker only raised $37.4 million. Warnock raised thrice the amount as Warnock.

How much was spent?

Warnock spent $75.9 million, and Walker spent less than half as much as Warnock, just over $32 million. 

Despite Walker, who has national name recognition due to his sports career, having significantly less cash than his Democrat opponent, he still raised roughly three times the funds that Masters or Vance did and twice as much as Ted Budd did. 

Now for the Georgia runoff

Warnock still has $29 million on hand, while Walker has $9.8 million.

Warnock raised more than $52 million since late October, while Walker has raised less than half of that amount, approximately $21 million at the same time.

Now for Pennsylvania

How much was raised?

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz raised $40 million dollars while Democrat John Fetterman raised more than $56 million

Oz, who once again had name recognition raised more funds compared to his lesser-known colleagues Masters, Vance, and Budd.

How much was spent?

Fetterman spent $52,148,697 while Dr. Oz spent 37,739,643.

In the end, despite his severe impairments, Fetterman won by 51.2% of the mandate i.e. 27,47,601 votes while losing candidate Oz secured 46.3% of the mandate i.e. 24,84,096 votes.

Finally for Alaska.

How much was raised?

Establishment candidate and incumbent Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski raised $10,779,675 while Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka raised $4,847,916

How much was spent?

Murkowski spent $8,673,228 while Trump backed Kelly Tshibaka, who spent $4,155,488.

In terms of fundraised and expenditure, the ratio between Murkowski and Tshibaka was 2:1.

Murkowski won by 51.2% of the mandate i.e. 1,35,972 votes while losing candidate Tshibaka secured 46.3% of the mandate i.e. 1,17,299 votes.

Significant blame regarding this disparity in funds must go to Mitch McConnell 

During the crucial final stages of the Senate Race in Arizona The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, canceled a $9.6 million dollar ad buy for the Republican candidate

Why is funding so important?

Every occurrence in the campaign needs funds. It pays wages for party workers who can campaign from door to door. It pays for campaign material.  

For candidates with relatively less name recognition, funds can make the difference. When Democrats fund attack adverts, the GOP can respond with another advert in the same forum.

This disparity in funding probably explains why they did relatively well during the midterms. In the end, the best candidate in the world is worthless if there is no money to spend that will educate voters about the candidate's greatness.

But that wasn’t all.

A few months ago McConnell unknowingly showed his true intentions when he engaged in a veiled attack on MAGA Senate candidates.

McConnell said that "there's probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they're statewide, and candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome."

McConnell was conceding defeat, months before the contest began, this was shocking and unprecedented. In politics, even the worse candidates and their party leaders express optimism and confidence irrespective of their electoral prospects. 

It was almost like McConnell had no desire to win.

This was a calculated move.

McConnell knew victories in Senate races would be seen as a mandate for MAGA would have made his chances of remaining Senate Leader very slim. Losing the Senate was advantageous to him. The narrative was pushed that this was a rejection of Trump and MAGA, which is conveniently interpreted as a mandate for the establishment i.e. McConnell. 

A midterm loss for the GOP is a win for McConnell.

Some GOP Senators had demanded that the Senate leadership elections be postponed which would give time for other leadership candidates to push their message and for the results of the Georgia run-off race to be out.

But their demands were purposefully ignored and the contest between McConnell and Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott was held.

Once again this was a calculated move.

Scott had no time to push his message and McConnell had the advantage of being the incumbent.

Thirty-seven senators voted for McConnell while ten senators voted for Scott and one senator voted present in a secret-ballot election.

Mitch McConnell has two more years as Senate Leader

Also appears on American Thinker

 

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