Mid-term elections in the USA: Millions of dollars “fall” in Georgia – State “key” for the Senate

Before it is even seen that the battle in Georgia between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker will be decided in repeat elections on December 6, 262 million dollars had been spent on the election campaigns of the two men.

Now, with control of the Senate likely to depend on the outcome of this showdownpolitical analysts expect that and the two candidates will indulge in an advertising storm and increase their campaign spending, which are estimated to reach the level of the previous repeat elections in the state, two years ago.

“Simply start adding zeros and stop when you get boredsaid Chuck Clay, former head of the Georgia Republican Party and former governor of the state. “Money is something neither side will count on.”

Although Republicans look set to win a majority in the House of Representatives, control of the Senate has yet to be decided, as hundreds of thousands of votes remain to be counted in Arizona and Nevada. If each party wins one state, the Georgia runoff election will decide the battle.

Warnock and Walker’s campaigns have spent $262 million so faraccording to OpenSecrets.

The most expensive election campaign was, as reported by APE-MPE, the runoff in January 2021, also in Georgia, between Republican Senator David Perdue and Democrat John Ossoff, in which $515 million had been spent.

For months Georgia residents are bombarded by the two candidates’ TV ads and political analysts estimate that very few voters have yet to choose between the two. But in an election contest where a few thousand votes could make the difference, both candidates are continuing with ads and every effort to win over new voters.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of OpenSecrets, predicts that another $100 million will be spent by December 6.

The Trump factor

The runoff is being held because, despite Warnock slightly ahead of Walker with 99 percent of the vote counted in Tuesday’s election, he failed to get 50 percent to be declared the winner, as required by Georgia election law.

Warnock, a pastor, won the Senate seat for the first time in the January 2021 by-election.

Clay sees Warnock as having an advantage over his opponent because of the support he enjoys in major urban centers, including Atlanta. But Walker may convince the roughly 2 percent of voters who preferred an independent candidate, as well as conservatives who chose not to vote for the Senate on Tuesday, but will do so now that the balance in Congress may depend on it.

Meanwhile, the former US president Donald Trumpwho backs Walker, may play an important role.

Before 2021, when Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election led many Republicans to avoid voting in the runoffs, Republicans had won all seven runoffs in Georgia, according to Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.

Bullock pointed out that if Trump decides to campaign for Walker, it could be bad for the Republican nominee, given that some voters have become disenchanted with the former president, especially after the party’s less than expected election performance. of November 8.

“I think Democrats would pay for that opportunity,” Bullock commented, explaining that Trump “may be mobilizing his base, but he’s also mobilizing people who are likely to vote Democratic.”