Ossoff kicks off 2025 with $11M haul as GOP waits on Kemp
Democrat raises $11M ahead of tough re-election
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is set to report raising roughly $11 million since the start of 2025, an eye-popping haul that his campaign says is the most money ever raised in a quarter by an incumbent in an odd-numbered year.
“I’m grateful to the hundreds of thousands of record-shattering supporters who have already joined what will be the biggest and most relentless turnout effort in Georgia history,” Ossoff said in a statement.
While the Georgia Democrat hopes his fundraising chops will scare off Republican challengers, his first-quarter haul is likely only a fraction of the money expected to be spent on the race. Around half a billion dollars was spent in Georgia’s 2022 Senate contest, when U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock secured his first full term. And the two Senate runoffs in 2021 had a final combined price tag of nearly $1 billion, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.
But it’s not Ossoff’s money that’s keeping Republican challengers at bay. It’s Gov. Brian Kemp, who has yet to announce whether he will challenge the first-term lawmaker after being heavily recruited by the national party. Other Republicans, such as U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter and state insurance chief John King, have said that they would only run if Kemp stays out.
Ossoff is widely regarded as the most vulnerable incumbent Senate Democrat on the map next year, with incumbents in Michigan and New Hampshire opting not to seek another term. But even as Kemp has everyone in “wait-and-see” mode, Republicans remain bullish on recapturing a seat in a state that Donald Trump flipped back to the GOP column last year by more than 100,000 votes.