A report released on Wednesday by Stacey Abrams’ campaign for governor of Georgia revealed that the campaign raised more than $11.7 million from donations over the three months that ended April 30.
In advance of the May 24 primary election for the nomination of her party’s presidential candidate, she announced that she has more than $8 million in cash on hand. When Abrams raised $7.2 million in January, he spent nearly all of that money in just two months.
Kemp, on the other hand, has a larger cash cushion than Abrams, who has $10.7 million. In part because of a state regulation forbidding incumbent officeholders from soliciting contributions during state legislative sessions, he was only able to raise $2.7 million over the two-year term. Kemp had raised his funds 26 days after the 4th of April had finished.
In the process of spending money to defeat former U.S. Senator David Perdue, Kemp’s top Republican opponent, his bank account suffered a decline. To put it another way, Kemp’s advantage in terms of cash on hand has been eroded.
Perdue has not yet revealed how much money he raised and spent over that period, which is expected soon. Despite Trump’s endorsement, the challengers have been unable to tap into the same large funding network that supported their previous two Senate races in the state. Despite having less than $1 million in cash at the end of January, Perdue hinted that he would dip into his own $50 million fortune to keep up with Kemp’s spending.
Following the announcement of a draft Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade, Abrams temporarily paused her fundraising efforts to encourage supporters to instead donate to five groups that defend abortion rights. On Wednesday evening, her campaign resumed its fundraising efforts and urged its contributors to continue their support for the charities.
The Abrams campaign has announced that 187,000 individual contributors have donated to the campaign since December, which is in line with the Democrats’ desire to build on their previous wins in the state of Georgia. Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, who is seeking reelection, raised $13.6 million in the first quarter of 2022, according to campaign finance reports. According to his campaign, this was a new high for the first quarter of an election year in terms of contributions.
In addition, there has been discussion in Georgia concerning Governor Kemp’s use of a unique state fundraising vehicle known as a “leadership committee,” which permits the governor to accept unlimited contributions while also coordinating his campaign spending and spending plans. They asserted that it was unfair that Kemp was able to collect large quantities of money while Perdue and Abrams were barred from doing so until they had won their respective party primaries in the fall.
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Kemp’s Georgians First Leadership Committee will be unable to solicit or accept contributions until after the primary election and any possible runoff election that determines whether he will be the Republican nominee for governor, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen last week. This follows an earlier ruling that Kemp would not be able to spend money from the committee against Perdue.
