Senate Dems pump $7M into ground game for Georgia runoff

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is spending $7 million on field operations in the Georgia Senate runoff, kicking off an expensive overtime race that could give the winning party control of the Senate.

The DSCC's multimillion-dollar expenditure on its ground game will fund direct voter contact programs, particularly door-to-door canvassing, according to details shared first with POLITICO. The DSCC's program will fortify get-out-the-vote work conducted by a constellation of nonprofits, PACs and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock's campaign.

Neither Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker cleared 50 percent during Tuesday’s election, forcing a head-to-head matchup on Dec. 6 between the two candidates. The four-week blitz could break spending records, should the balance of power in the Senate be decided by the results out of Georgia.

“We know talking directly to voters through a strong, well-funded ground-game is critical to winning in Georgia, and we’re wasting no time in kick-starting these programs in the runoff,” DSCC chair Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in a statement.

Putting a ready-made field operation in place may prove especially important in 2022, since Georgia shortened its runoff period from nine weeks to four weeks. Field organizers will not be able to register new voters, so the primary focus will be on turning out the party's base again — those who voted either in November 2022 or in the last round of Senate runoffs in Georgia, when Warnock and fellow Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won in January 2021.

The DSCC is not the only organization revving up its field operations. Ossoff, who wasn't on the ballot in 2022, spent money from his political organization in the final weeks of the general election to restart his own canvassing program on behalf of Warnock and Georgia Democrats.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, along with Women Speak Out PAC, also announced they would be spending at least $1 million on the runoff, reactivating pro-Walker field operations.

In a statement, the DSCC also noted that it spent more on its field and direct voter contact programs in 2022, about $60 million, than it did on its independent expenditure arm, which covers TV and digital ads.

Allies for Warnock and Walker also kicked off their own small-dollar fundraising efforts by Wednesday evening. The Democratic Governors' Association, which just wrapped its election cycle, sent an email to its grassroots donor list, signed by Warnock, asking for help in "Georgia's must-win Senate race."

On Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked viewers to donate directly to Walker's campaign — "Team Herschel dot com, right now, like right now."