How Democrats’ two big wins could help lift them to the majority - Semafor
Democrats started Tuesday night with two quick, decisive Senate victories — by Georgia incumbent Jon Ossoff and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper — that are fueling their drive deeper into red territory, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
The party’s top Senate super PAC pulled down several weeks’ worth of ads in those two Southern states in recent weeks, per information shared with Semafor, saving $22 million in North Carolina and $11 million in Georgia.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also scrapped some ad buys in both states down the stretch, decisions that paid off as the party won both seats early on Tuesday night. Control of the chamber still rests on several uncalled races, including in Ohio and Texas, but Democrats were feeling very optimistic about taking the majority — and earlier in the night than some had expected.
Their decision to pull cash out of Georgia and North Carolina helped top Democratic groups approve new Senate spending in states like Mississippi, South Carolina, and Kansas. It also helped the party shore up candidates in the battleground states of Michigan and Maine as Republicans’ deep-pocketed Senate Leadership Fund super PAC poured in astounding sums.
“The strength of the Cooper and Ossoff campaigns allowed Senate Majority PAC to re-invest our initial investments into our expanded battleground map. That is a game-changer when Republicans poured money into races,” said Lauren French, a spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC.
Senate Majority PAC spent heavily in Kansas on top of its spending in traditional battlegrounds, while the DSCC put in $500,000 in South Carolina’s Senate race late, according to a person familiar with the buy. That spending followed $500,000 in Mississippi previously reported by Semafor.
That was only possible due to the strength of Ossoff and Cooper, who both raised gobs of money and put away their opponents weeks ago. Cooper raised more than $49 million through mid-October, and Ossoff raised more than $100 million.
Cooper and Ossoff are both notching considerable, double-digit victories over their respective opponents, Rep. Mike Collins and Michael Whatley. Democrats are looking competitive in Maine, South Carolina, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas — all seats currently held by Republicans.
In Senate races, candidate quality matters. And it can affect all of the other candidates on a party’s slate.
Ossoff and Cooper ran such boringly effective campaigns that it allowed Democratic leaders to concentrate their efforts elsewhere. And that could be the difference in some of the other races that will determine the Senate majority.
