Democrats raised more than $315 million to decisively lose 6 Senate races

Democrats raised an unprecedented amount of money to challenge Republicans' Senate majority. It didn't pay off.

Democratic Senate candidates set fundraising record after fundraising record throughout 2020, bringing in a combined $315 million as they tried to flip races in Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas. But Democrats ended up losing all six of those races as of Wednesday, and in most cases, the results weren't even close.

Democrat Jaime Harrison led the 2020 fundraising charge as he tried to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), bringing in a huge $107.5 million only to lose by about 14 points, early results indicate. Amy McGrath meanwhile brought in more than $88 million, but suffered an even bigger 20-point loss as she tried to oust Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, Sara Gideon in Maine, Steve Bullock in Montana, and M.J. Hegar in Texas are projected to lose by smaller margins, but still failed to fulfill polls that predicted potential flips.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Two Senate races in Georgia and another in North Carolina are still up in the air, though early results indicate they're all headed in Republicans' favor. One of Georgia's races will head to a runoff, with Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) in close competition against Rev. Raphael Warnock (D). And even if Democrat Cal Cunningham wins in North Carolina and Democrat Jon Ossoff wins in Georgia's other race, it still won't be enough to turn the Senate blue.

Only John Hickenlooper in Colorado and Mark Kelly in Arizona are projected to pick up wins for Democrats, but a projected loss for Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) will negate one of those gains, and a still-undecided tossup for Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) could solidify the Senate's status quo.