Democrats are winning the fundraising race in North Carolina’s Senate election, according to a recent email announcement from the North Carolina GOP.
“Democrat donors from NYC and California are pouring into North Carolina to turn the state “blue,” the fundraising email said.
In the last few elections North Carolina has been a “purple state,” divided evenly between Republicans and Democrats.
With the U.S. Senate up for grabs in 2022, North Carolina’s Senatorial election has no incumbent.
Currently, the Senate race in North Carolina pits a united Democratic front behind Cheri Beasley. against three leading Republican candidates now fighting with each other before the primary election.
Former Republican governor Pat McCrory, Rep. Ted Budd (R), former House representative Mark Walker, and several other candidates are all competing for the Republican Senate nomination.
FEC figures show that Beasley’s campaign has raised $8.5 million so far, leaving any individual Republican behind in the race.
Budd has raised $4.2 million, McCrory has raised $4.1 million, and Walker has raised $1.6 million.
If all Republican funding were united behind one candidate, Republicans would have at least $1 million more in campaign funds than Beasley.
The North Carolina GOP’s email said that Democrats were building a “huge fundraising advantage.”
“We need to show the Socialist Left that we’ll never surrender this must-win Senate Seat without a fight,” the email reads.
Statistics compiled by OpenSecrets, a campaign finance tracking site, show that the candidate who raises the most money tends to win.
But academics who study these issues are unsure just what this trend means. According to an article by academic expert Suzanne Robbins, the amount of money a candidate gets sometimes just shows enough people like the candidate to give them money.
“In the world of politics and campaigns, money is meaningful. It just may not mean what, and as much as, most people think it means,” she wrote.
According to numbers gathered from the Federal Election Commission website, North Carolina’s major Republican candidates currently have raised about $10 million more than the major Democratic candidates across the state.
The overall numbers stand at about $32 million raised by Republican candidates to $23 million raised by Democrats. This number doesn’t include funds raised by political fundraising groups that aren’t attached to candidates.
These high spending numbers suggest the political importance of North Carolina. In 2020, North Carolina had the 10th-most expensive senatorial election nationwide at $78 million, according to OpenSecrets.
The North Carolina GOP and the North Carolina Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment.
