Party primaries for next year’s midterm federal election contests may be more than nine months away and the general election even more far-off. But the money race for political candidates pursuing votes in Coastal Georgia is already scorching.
In the battle for the Republican nomination for next year’s U.S. Senate race, Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter ended the second quarter of this year with $4.1 million in his campaign war chest, thanks in part to his $2 million loan to his own campaign, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Carter was followed by Insurance Commissioner John King with $518,000 and Reagan Box, a horse trainer from Armuchee, in northwest Georgia, with $1,661.
The Republican field is far from complete. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, and Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration and former U.S. senator, are reported to be considering entering the race, among others.
The winner of next May’s GOP primary, likely a candidate backed by both President Donald Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, will face incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff in what is expected to be the most expensive election race in the nation next year.
The one-term senator from Atlanta ended the second quarter with a whopping $15.5 million in his campaign coffers.
Clear leader in 1st District money race
The open race to succeed Carter as 1st District representative in U.S. Congress also features a clear leader in the money race.
Jim Kingston, son of longtime Republican congressman Jack Kingston, ended the 2nd quarter with a massive $857,060 in his campaign account.
He was followed by Chatham County Commissioner Patrick Farrell with $248,800, healthcare executive Krista Penn with $3,222 and former gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor with $3,017.
In the contest for the Democratic nomination, The FEC reported no campaign contribution filings from either of the announced candidates — Camden County’s Defonsio Daniels, who declared his candidacy for Coastal Georgia’s House seat on Facebook on July 11, and Randy Zurcher, local union representative for the Savannah Federation of Teachers, who entered the race last week.
‘Getting our name recognition up’
For Carter and Kingston, their large leads in the money race serve to attract more donors, scare both declared and potential rivals, and produce an air of inevitability about the election’s outcome.
“Real good” is how Carter described his second quarter fundraising in an interview last week with conservative talk show host John Fredericks.
“We raised over $3 million. I put $2 million of my own money in it, and we raised over a million. So, we’re back over $4 million in our in our coffers. That’s after having spent two-and-a-half-million in the Atlanta market and getting our name recognition up.”
The spending worked, Carter said. said the multimillionaire former pharmacist from St. Simons. “We’re up 10 points on the nearest competitor,” he said.
Carter did not identify the organization that carried out the poll. But reportedly, an “internal polling memo conducted for the Carter campaign” last month showed him with a nine-point lead at 27% over a hypothetical field that includes Collins (18%), Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (10%) and King.
‘Direct voter engagement’
The portrait that leaders in the fundraising race paint about their numbers is not the whole picture, though.
In Carter’s case, by loaning money to his own campaign, as campaign finance laws permit, he signals that he is serious enough about his political ambitions to put his own money on the line.
It also indicates to voters and rivals alike that whatever his other political messaging might be, he is a candidate of no small means.
Campaign finance laws also delineate how much donor money can be spent in a primary election and a general election.
In Kingston’s instance, that means he can only spend some $500,000 of his $857,060 in the all-important primary, showing that his fundraising advantage over his primary opponents is not as great as it first might appear and his campaign boasts.
Another part of the story is that for all the importance of money in politics, it is not enough to ensure victory, as Taylor, one of Kingston’s opponents in the primary, pointed out last month: “Money don’t buy votes.”
That warning may be dismissed as the obvious — and only — response of a candidate lagging far behind in the money race. Except that it isn’t entirely wrong.
Said one local political operative who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss recent cash-rich but failed political campaigns: “Cash is important. But what wins elections is direct voter engagement. Signs don’t vote. Digital texts don’t vote.”
Farrell, another rival to Kingston for the Republican nomination, appeared earlier this month to be taking that lesson to heart, as he ventured from his base in Chatham County south in Coastal Georgia to the counties of Glynn, Camden and McIntosh to campaign for votes.
Recent history bears out the wisdom of the effort, none more illustrative than the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2018 between Casey Cagle and Brian Kemp.
Cagle spent nearly $10.5 million and Kemp, $4.5 million.
Kemp won with 39.5% of the vote, a landslide.