U.S. Senate Republican nominee Herschel Walker reportedly raised $3.3 million on the first day of his runoff campaign against incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock, according to Fox News, which cited Walker’s campaign team.
The campaign told Fox they followed that up with a $4.3 million haul on Thursday.
Warnock has not announced fundraising numbers in the opening days of the runoff challenge.
Fundraising will be huge for Walker ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff. As of October 19, Walker had posted just shy of $37.8 million in funding, while Warnock had more than doubled him at $123.5 million. Heading into Tuesday’s General Election, Warnock still had the fundraising momentum on his side, with his most recent 48-hour notice on Nov. 6 showing nearly $88,000 in contributions, while a 48-hour report from Walker’s campaign the same day showed just over $32,000.
As of October 19, which doesn’t account for fundraising through Election Day or the newly reported funds raised, Walker had about $5.4 million remaining on-hand. Warnock held nearly $23 million at the same point.
Both candidates face a potentially consequential final push. Two other U.S. Senate races also remain undetermined, in Nevada and Arizona. If current leads in those races hold, where the Republican candidate has a razor-thin lead in Nevada and the Democrat has a more sizable lead in Arizona, Georgia’s runoff will again determine who controls the U.S. Senate. Under that scenario, a Warnock victory would maintain the Democrats’ 50/50 split, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. A Walker victory would give the GOP a 51/49 majority.
In Arizona, Incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly has a more than 115,000 vote advantage over Republican challenger Blake Masters, with the majority of votes still to be counted in two counties that favor Democrats — Maricopa and Pima counties, according to the New York Times. Though votes still remain in Republican stronghold counties of Pinal, Yavapai and Mohave.
In Nevada, Republican challenger Adam Laxalt holds a less than 9,000 vote lead over Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. There, votes are still being counted in blue-leaning Clark and Washoe counties and in Republican strongholds in Lyon, Douglas, Carson City and Nye counties, according to the New York Times.
Walker’s campaign told Fox News they plan to have a television ad up later this week and will hold rallies in large population centers where they can turnout the most votes by energizing supporters of former President Donald Trump, “soft Republicans and independents. They also hope to mobilize Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came out with a massive re-election victory on Tuesday and carries immense popularity among conservatives nationwide, as well as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who also secured a sound re-election victory on Tuesday.
Kemp earned about 200,000 more votes in the General Election than Walker, according to election results from the Georgia Secretary of State, making his presence on the campaign trail a potential big draw for voters who might not otherwise show up without Kemp on the ballot in December.
Meanwhile, Walker will also have support from outside groups, including the 34N22 PAC (a reference to Walker’s jersey number when he was in the NFL.) The group issued a statement Friday pledging its continued support to Walker heading into the runoff.
“34N22 is fully prepared to finish the fight, get Herschel Walker across the goal line, and evict Raphael Warnock on December 6th,” PAC spokesperson Stephen Lawson said. “Throughout his General Election, we provided the air support for Herschel’s ground game in the form of TV and digital ads, billboards, grassroots events and micro targeting efforts — and we will continue to build on that momentum by aggressively defining the clear contrast in this race.”
In an emailed document outlining its previous support for Walker, 34N22 listed “two highly-effective multi-million dollar ad buys over the summer.” They also list “an audience of over 200,000” on digital platforms and “guerrilla marketing campaigns to create max earned media.”
