Georgia Dem Ossoff Receiving Twice as Much in Big-Money Donations from California as He Is from Georgia
As campaign crunch time gets underway, blue-state Democrats have once again been caught funneling massive financial contributions into the effort to flip the Senate.
Out-of-state itemized contributions to Democratic senatorial nominee Jon Ossoff of Georgia dwarfed in-state big-money donations to the candidate last quarter, according to a Friday report in the Washington Free Beacon, which cited a federal election filing.
Ossoff, who’s fighting an uphill electoral ground war with incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue, broke a Georgia senatorial campaign record in the third quarter, raking in more than $21 million.
An in-depth analysis of the haul, however, revealed that roughly 87 percent of the candidate’s total in itemized contributions — any donation exceeding $200 — had been pulled in from donors outside Georgia.
Such contributions totaled only $1.64 million from in-state donors, but stacked up to more than $3.37 million from progressive California alone.
Democrat Jon @Ossoff set a new Georgia fundraising record with his Q3 haul, and will report $8M+ left in the bank for his bid to unseat Republican Sen. David Perdue. #gapol #gasen https://t.co/TIWgA7s2W7
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) October 15, 2020
The candidate reportedly saw similar results in an unsuccessful 2017 bid to represent Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, with 97 percent of contributions in the closing two months of the campaign coming from outside the state.
Ossoff is not the first Democratic senatorial nominee in recent memory to cash in on massive out-of-state donations.
In 2018, Texas Democratic senatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke relied heavily on blue-state donors as he outraised incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz by more than 200 percent, according to The Dallas Morning News.
O’Rourke would go on to lose his Senate bid by a 2.6 percentage point margin, however, as the Democratic Party lost a net of two seats following the high-profile Senate confirmation proceedings of then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
With 35 seats in the U.S. Senate up for grabs in 2020, the Democratic National Committee is working to flip a three-vote Republican majority within the body.
According to various reports, Democratic efforts to flip the Senate have been flush with cash as party leaders and political action committees pour millions into advertising and grassroots efforts to oust prominent Republicans nationwide, from moderates like Susan Collins of Maine to hard-line conservatives like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
That is more out-of-state money than Robert Francis O’Rourke raised in 2018 in the Texas Senate race https://t.co/At2naTCnz7
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) October 11, 2020
According to the statistical analysis website FiveThiryEight, the Democrats are favored to reclaim control of the Senate in 2020, with Republican incumbents Martha McSally of Arizona, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Thom Tillis and Collins at serious risk of falling on Election Day.
Hope remains, however, for the Republican Senate majority to maintain its six-year hold on the body, as mild polling gains arise for Collins and incumbent Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa keeps her race with Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield close, according to RealClearPolitics.
Republicans also stand to gain a seat in Alabama, where political newcomer Tommy Tuberville seeks to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who reclaimed the seat from GOP control in a 2017 special election over the scandalized Roy Moore.
The Western Journal has reached out to the DNC for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
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