Democrat U.S. Senate challenger Jaime Harrison hauled in a record-breaking $57 million in fundraising in the third quarter in his bid to oust Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
The single-quarter haul between July and September breaks the record $38.1 million Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke raised in the third quarter of his Senate campaign in 2018, the Washington Post reported.
At the time, O’Rourke’s fundraising haul broke the record for the largest-ever per quarter in a U.S. Senate race, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Harrison’s campaign said it gained 1.5 million donations averaging $37 apiece from 994,000 donors during the past quarter.
The haul brings the total amount raised for this campaign cycle to $86 million.
Harrison’s third-quarter figure comes as Graham has been struggling to match his contender.
In Graham’s three previous Senate races, he won by double-digits. Now, he is pleading to his base for help.
“I’m getting overwhelmed,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity, adding, “Help me. They’re killing me moneywise. Help me. You did last week. Help me again.”
The South Carolina Senator also noted on Fox & Friends that he was “being killed financially” in a separate interview.
Graham has not yet released the numbers of his third-quarter fundraising.
The fundraising announcement from Harrison comes the day before Graham, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, starts confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
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