October 11, 2020

The Democrat Seeking to Unseat Lindsey Graham Just Smashed Fundraising Records

Jaime Harrison’s Senate campaign raised a staggering $57 million last quarter.

South Carolina's Jaime HarrisonMeg Kinnard/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

South Carolina Democrat Jaime Harrison raised a staggering $57 million in the third quarter of this year—more than any senate campaign has raised in a single quarter in US history.

Harrison seeks to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In recent weeks, Graham has led the effort to swear in Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, despite previous claims that he wouldn’t support filling a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year. 

Harrison is the first credible challenger in some time to Graham, who is seeking a a fourth term in the Senate. Polls show the election in South Carolina to be extremely competitive: Some show Graham having a slight edge, while others show the candidates neck and neck. Last week, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its prediction from “lean Republican” to “tossup,” calling Harrison “perhaps Democrats’ best recruit and a fundraising behemoth.” 

Harrison has so far massively outraised and outspent Graham, pouring $52 million into a TV and digital advertising blitz compared to Graham’s $19 million. Harrison’s third quarter total, most of which came from out-of-state donors, is more than double what Sen. Graham raised in the previous six quarters combined, notes the New York Times.

But the fundraising numbers don’t mean Harrison is a shoo-in: After all, the previous quarterly senate fundraising record of $38 million was set by Texas’s Beto O’Rourke in 2018, who ultimately lost to Sen. Ted Cruz.   

As my colleague Kara Voght noted in her deep dive about the South Carolina election, Harrison’s biggest hurdle was originally lack of name recognition. He’s taken the advice of former Georgia guberatorial candidate Stacey Abrams: “Stacey’s advice to me was, ‘Jaime, you gotta go everywhere. You can’t give up on anybody,’” Harrison said.

“I think [the Democratic spirit] is alive and well all across the South. The real question is getting people to believe that it’s possible here,” he went on. “People have a little sliver of hope, and now it’s important for me to take that sliver and turn it into a roaring flame.”

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate