Analysis
Congress has collectively spent 94 years fundraising since 2015
Since 2015, our elected leaders have had to spend hours fundraising, instead of doing their jobs. One of the biggest problems with our campaign finance system is that the…
Analysis
The money in politics behind the race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District
(Georgia 6th District Map)
Editor’s note: The special election will head to a runoff on June 20.
As people head to the polls today to vote in the race for the open seat in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, let’s take a look at the money behind the politics.
The seat was formerly held by Republican Rep. Tom Price and opened when he was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Trump administration earlier this year. Since then, a deluge of outside money and campaign contributions have flooded into the scuffle as a crowded field of candidates vies to represent the district in Congress:
- $7.9 million is the amount of money that outside groups have spent in the GA-06 special election.
- $4.7 million is the amount of money that conservative groups have spent attacking Democrat Jon Ossoff in the GA-06 special election.
- $2.7 million is the amount the top super PAC — the Congressional Leadership Fund, whose donors include oil company Chevron and private prison company GEO Group — spent in the race.
- Roughy 75 percent is the portion of outside spending that has come from just three groups — the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, the National Republican Congressional Committee and nonprofit advocacy group Ending Spending Inc.
- 27 is the number of outside groups that have spent money on ads in the GA-06 special election.
- $13 million is the approximate amount of money that all GA-06 candidates combined to raise through late March.
- $8.3 million is the amount of money that Democrat Jon Ossoff alone raised for his campaign through late March.
- 67 percent is the portion of Democrat Jon Ossoff’s war chest that came from small-dollar donors giving $200 or less, through late March.
(Source: Issue One analysis of campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission)
