ATLANTA – Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff raised more than $4.7 million last month, a total his campaign said marked the highest single-month fund-raising total of any Georgia candidate in Senate history.
“Georgians from all walks of life are united behind Jon’s message of rebuilding an economy that supports flourishing small businesses and working families, attacking the rampant corruption in Washington and ensuring every Georgian has affordable and accessible health care,” Ellen Foster, Ossoff’s campaign manager, said Thursday.
With a series of polls calling the race between Ossoff and incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue a tossup, Perdue’s GOP backers have been pouring money into his campaign as well.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s fund-raising arm, has given Perdue nearly $5 million since mid-July, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Another $6.1 million has come from the Senate Leadership Fund, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s political action committee, with $13.5 million more to come by Election Day, Politico reported.
Ossoff, an investigative journalist, won the Democratic nomination to challenge Perdue in a crowded primary in June. Perdue captured the Republican nomination unopposed.
While this is Ossoff’s first statewide bid for elective office, he ran for a congressional seat in a special election in 2017, losing to Republican Karen Handel in a race that became the most expensive in the history of the House of Representatives.
Businessman Perdue, who served asCEO of several companies including Dollar General before being elected to the Senate, is seeking his second six-year term.