Georgia's Senate races broke spending records

The Georgia Senate races are making history as the country's two most expensive Congressional contests.

After analyzing the most recent Federal Election Commission filings from mid-December, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that the two races — Republican David Perdue versus Democrat Jon Ossoff and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) versus the Rev. Raphael Warnock — both shattered spending records.

In November, none of the candidates received 50 percent of the vote, leading to Tuesday's runoffs. For the primary, November election, and runoff, about $470 million was spent on the race between Ossoff and Perdue, whose Senate term ended over the weekend. The filing shows that 215 outside groups contributed $271 million to the candidates, with Ossoff bringing in $50 million more than Perdue. This is the most expensive Senate race ever.

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Loeffler and Warnock's race is a close second, at $362 million. More than 100 outside groups contributed $171 million to Loeffler and Warnock, with Warnock raising $28 million more than Loeffler.

Over the last two months, more than $490 million was spent on TV, digital, and radio ads for the Georgia candidates, The New York Times reports. The final spending numbers will come out after the election, when additional Federal Election Commission filings are made.

Last year was a big one for campaign spending — the Center for Responsive Politics found that nine of the 10 most expensive Senate races in U.S. history occurred in 2020.