Democrats Spent $104.1 Million Losing to Lindsey Graham, Most Expensive Loss in Senate History

Democrat Jaime Harrison spent $104.1 million in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the most expensive loss in the history of the U.S. Senate.

Harrison shattered fundraising records, as Democrats from across the nation poured money into the race in an effort to punish Graham for his role in confirming conservative Supreme Court justices.

Earlier on Election Day, Fox News summarized the numbers:

Harrison announced a record-breaking fundraising haul of $57 million on October 11 for the third quarter of the election cycle. The previous quarterly record — $38 million — was held by former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke in his losing 2018 Senate bid against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Harrison has also now both raised and spent more than $100 million overall, by far the most of any Senate candidate in American history. He raked in $107.6 million in donations, but his campaign spent almost as much, doling out $104.1 million. The previous spending record was set in 2018 by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., with $85 million, though much of that total was self-funded.

As Harrison appeared to inch closer to Graham, the three-term veteran became a ubiquitous presence on social media and conservative talk shows, warning (correctly) that liberals were raising massive sums of money to punish him for the recent confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

That effort may have paid off (no pun intended), as Graham held onto the seat. If Republicans retain the Senate, Graham will likely return as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.