Republican Senator David Perdue complained about out of state cash flooding into Georgia's Senate runoff elections, despite the fact his own campaign has received cash from outside the state.
Appearing on Fox News on Sunday morning, the Georgia Republican said locals "resent" out of state donations "to some degree" as he argued they didn't want people from outside the area trying to "dictate" how they would vote.
"My opponent, just like Kelly Loeffler's opponent, most of their money is coming out of state, mostly California and New York," Perdue told Sunday Morning Futures. "And we just resent that to some degree down here, because we don't want people from outside of state trying to come down here and dictate what we're going to do."
But he added that the Georgia Senate runoff election between himself and the Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff had become a "national" race, given its importance to the composition of the upper chamber.
"This is everybody in the country, Democrats and Republicans, trying to weigh-in here to get the majority in the Senate," he said. "If we keep the majority, we not only hold the line against the Democratic agenda, but we also protect the gains that we've made under President [Donald] Trump over the last four years."
Newsweek has contacted the Ossoff campaign for comment. This article will be updated with any response.
Sen. Perdue complained about out of state donations after it was revealed that all four candidates fighting Georgia's two Senate runoff elections had received millions in funding from out of state donors.
According to FiveThirtyEight analysis, the candidates received more than $167 million between them through the grassroots funding platforms ActBlue and WinRed between November 3 and November 24. Ninety-six percent of donations to the Democratic candidates came from out of state, the analysis found, while 92 percent of Republican contributions came from outside Georgia.
The GOP candidates received slightly more money from in-state donations than their rivals.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina revealed in late November that he had also wired $1 million to Perdue and his GOP colleague Kelly Loeffler to support their battles to maintain the party's slim majority in the upper chamber.
The Georgia Senate runoff elections are slated to take place on January 5. If the Republican incumbents lose, the Senate will be split 50-50, meaning Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would have a crucial tiebreaker vote in the event of splits over key legislation.
At the time of writing, limited polling from Georgia shows both runoff elections could be closely fought contests, with no one candidate having consistent, clear leads in successive surveys.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
