The statement:
“She purchased that [Senate] seat,” Warnock said. “It’s done well for her. The issue is that the people who sold it to her don’t own it.” -Rev. Raphael Warnock, Atlanta Press Club debate, Dec. 6
What we found:
Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is facing the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in the January runoff election, which will decide control of the U.S. Senate. She got into the race after Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her in December of 2019 to replace Sen. Johnny Isakson, who stepped down for health reasons.
On the campaign trail, Warnock frequently highlights his humble beginnings, underscoring that he grew up in public housing in Savannah, one of 12 children and the first in his family to graduate from a four-year college. Warnock, the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, also refers to Loeffler as a “former Wall Street executive” who has “poured millions of her fortune in to take me down.”
Loeffler responds to such comments by spotlighting her own story.
“I was born and raised on a farm. I grew up working in the fields,” she said in their Dec. 6 debate. “I waitressed my way through school. And I was the first in my family to graduate from college. I worked hard to live the American dream and became a job creator right here in Georgia.”
After stints in five cities, she moved to Atlanta in 2002 to become the chief of investor relations for Intercontinental Exchange, which was then an energy trading platform. She married Jeff Sprecher, the company’s CEO, in 2004.
On Nov. 11, Warnock told MSNBC about the Senate race that if “money could purchase this seat, Kelly Loeffler would have had it by now.” Since then, he has alleged Loeffler “purchased” her Senate seat. Asked to explain, Warnock’s campaign pointed to Loeffler’s political campaign donations and her vow to bankroll her own candidacy.
While she has spent extensively on political campaigns — others and her own ― that is legal and not evidence that she “purchased” the seat in the way many might understand Warnock’s claim.
Loeffler pumped $18,100 into Kemp’s gubernatorial campaign in August 2019, shortly before Isakson announced he would resign. She also promised Kemp she would funnel $20 million of her own cash into her 2020 election, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Ten months later, Loeffler and her husband had donated more than $31 million in loans and contributions into GOP races for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House and White House, including $23 million for Loeffler’s campaign, all allowed by federal law, the AJC reported.
Loeffler’s spending on her race made her the third-largest self-funder in the country during that cycle, behind only billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, who both ran unsuccessfully for president.
Asked about Warnock’s accusation Loeffler campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson said: “I’m not going to dignify that shameful, disgraceful, sexist lie with a response.”
Feedback: Send your campaign questions to senatewatch@ajc.com
About the Author
