Perdue holding solid fund-raising lead over Democrats
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., entered this year with a huge fund-raising lead over three Democrats looking to challenge his bid for a second term.
Perdue raised nearly $1.9 million during the last three months of 2019, giving him a campaign war chest of more than $7.8 million at the end of the year, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission late Friday.
Documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff, who lost in a special election for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District seat three years ago, is the Democrats’ top fund-raiser. His campaign brought in about $1 million during the fourth quarter and entered January with almost $1.5 million cash on hand.
Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson raised $532,462 during October, November and December, and reported $319,044 in her campaign treasury of as Dec. 31.
Sarah Riggs Amico, a Cobb County businesswoman who lost to Republican Geoff Duncan in the 2018 race for lieutenant governor, raised $502,642 during the last quarter of 2019 – including a $365,000 loan she made to her campaign. Amico listed $472,406 cash on hand at the end of December.
Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry recently dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination to take on Perdue.
The fund-raising picture in Georgia’s other U.S. Senate contest is less clear because other major candidates vying to unseat recently appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., just entered the fray and didn’t have to file fourth-quarter reports.
Loeffler, however, is off to a good start defending the seat she took up early last month following her appointment by Gov. Brian Kemp to succeed retired GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson.
Fulfilling a pledge to jump-start her campaign with her own money, the wealthy Atlanta businesswoman put up $5 million. Combined with $459,701 in contributions from individual donors and political action committees, Loeffler reported almost $5.5 million in her campaign treasury.
Democrat Raphael Warnock, pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, are new to the contest and won’t have to file campaign-finance disclosures until after the first quarter of this year.
A Democrat who entered the race last fall, Matt Lieberman, son of former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, raised $702,326 in October, November and December. Lieberman reported $369,812 cash on hand as of Dec. 31.