Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who is currently seeking a full term of six years to follow the two-year stint he is presently fulfilling that comprises the last two years of the final term of the late Sen. Johnny Isakson (R), raised tens of millions more than Trump-backed Republican challenger Herschel Walker in recent weeks.
Walker’s total of contributions from individuals from October 20 through November 16 reached $20.4 million — and for Warnock, the total from the same category and period is $51 million. Warnock’s other fundraising in the period covered by the filings revealing these figures includes $194,000 in contributions from other political committees, while Walker’s total in that category — which does not include political party committees — is $116,000. The totals continue the trend from before the midterm elections in which Warnock was consistently among the leading federal candidates nationwide in terms of the amount of money raised.
Warnock and Walker are facing each other for a legally mandated runoff election after nobody passed 50 percent in the first round held earlier this month amid the nationwide midterms. After Democrats held onto a Senate seat in Nevada, the upcoming Georgia runoff became no longer about which party would hold control of the chamber for the next two years, but Warnock keeping the seat could let Senate Dems depend less on the whims of so-called moderates like Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both of whom have sometimes obstructed key portions of the Democratic agenda. They were the only two Dems in the Senate to vote against altering the filibuster rules to allow the passage of voting rights legislation amid nationwide concern about restrictive new rules around elections promoted and passed by Republican officials. Warnock already received more votes overall in the first round, so it appears he is in a strong position entering the runoff. The first poll released measuring voters’ attitudes ahead of Election Day, which is December 6, found Warnock leading, although subsequent polling muddled the picture.
Walker has consistently lied about basic elements of his background. He even claimed at one point to have hundreds of people still working for him in textiles, although truthfully, two potential options for the company to which he was trying to refer were already defunct when he made those comments — and records indicate he wasn’t involved in the founding or primary ownership of either entity. Walker also has well-documented and lengthy ties to Texas, where he lived prior to rolling out his Georgia Senate campaign. Rental income for a property owned by Walker’s wife Julie Blanchard in the Atlanta area — which Walker has claimed in part as his own although he isn’t listed in the ownership documents — was coming in as recently as last year — indicating the couple certainly weren’t living there.
