Jaime Harrison Just Had The Most Expensive Senate Defeat In History
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By Ralph Schwartz/Nov. 3, 2020 11:34 pm EST
Instead, Harrison bought advertising — on TV, on Facebook, even on Candy Crush (via Newsweek). But it wasn’t enough. Graham won his fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate in deeply conservative South Carolina fairly handily. Graham led by more than 14 percentage points as of 11:07 p.m. Eastern (via CNN).
Newsweek said in a headline that Harrison’s loss was the most expensive in Senate history. The only other race that compared prior to this year was in 2018, when Beto O’Rourke tried to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas with $80 million in contributions. O’Rourke fell 220,000 votes short of defeating Cruz, but if it was any consolation, The Texas Tribune observed that this Senate race was the closest Texas had seen in 40 years.
Republicans say all that money may have hurt Harrison’s campaign
Graham’s supporters responded, giving a total of $74 million — good enough for fourth highest among Senate candidates in this election, the Greenville News reported. Republicans told Newsweek that Harrison maybe got too much money for his own good. The GOP used Harrison’s nine-figure haul against him, saying that out-of-state donors were trying to influence South Carolina’s elections.
Democratic donors were also extra generous this year in two other Senate races. Democratic challengers Mark Kelly in Arizona and Amy McGrath in Kentucky both received about $90 million in campaign contributions. Mitch McConnell beat McGrath in Kentucky, and the Arizona race was too close to call at the time of this writing.
