Dem
54
Ties
1
GOP
45
The Q3 numbers on fundraising are now in. But what is more important in the final 2 weeks is not how much money a candidate may have scored in July, but how much the candidate had in the bank on Sept. 30. Those numbers are now also in. Here that are for some of the top Senate races. If you are thinking of making a last-minute donation, the table below could give you a guide of who could use some help and who is richer than Uncle Scrooge, depending on your party preference:
The top two Democrats, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Roy Cooper, don't need to spend a penny nickel in the last 2
weeks. They are going to win in landslides no matter what. Cooper could win friends and influence senators by doling his
war chest out to Democratic candidates in need now, like Sherrod Brown, Mary Peltola, and Josh Turek. It would also
benefit him personally, since being in the Senate majority is a lot more fun than being in the Senate minority. Also,
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would be very grateful for his assistance in gaining the Senate majority and
that gratitude could extend to giving Cooper his choice of committee assignments, something a junior senator does not
normally enjoy.
Ossoff is young and will surely run again some day, maybe for president in 2028 (although he said he won't), maybe for the Senate in 2032. He could dish out a bit of his haul to win some friends, but keep much of it for a future campaign. There is no point is wasting any of it on his 2026 race. That is over and done now.
James Talarico is way ahead of Ken Paxton in cash on hand, but Elon Musk could toss another billion into the race to help Paxton, so Talarico needs to use his war chest himself. It would be political malpractice to give any of it to needy Democrats. No one will blame him for using every nickel himself.
Interestingly, no Republican candidate has money to burn. All of those ahead of their challengers are in tight races. These include Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Mike Rogers, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). (V)