Facebook’s Georgia ad loophole has politicians around the US fundraising off runoff elections

#Georgia’s runoff elections are just peachy for political fundraising – with lawmakers and political action committees from around the country stepping into the fray to shake out some cash.

#Facebook halted political ads the week before #Election #Day, but it announced earlier this month that they would temporarily resume before the runoffs. The exemption only applies to ads targeted in the state.

#Republican #Sens. #David #Perdue and #Kelly #Loeffler are hoping to hold off challenges from #Democrats #Jon #Ossoff and the #Rev. #Raphael #Warnock, respectively, after each candidate failed to get enough votes on #Election #Day to win outright. The runoff elections are #Jan. 5.

FACEBOOK INTERRUPTS BAN ON POLITICAL ADVERTISING FOR GEORGIA RUNOFFS

#If the #Democrats win both races, the #Senate will see a 50-50 tie between the GOP and senators who caucus with the #Democratic #Party, which include independent #Sens. #Bernie #Sanders and #Angus #King. #Vice #President-elect #Kamala #Harris would represent a potential tiebreaking vote, giving #Democrats control of both the legislative and executive branches.

#Publicly available #Facebook ad-spending data shows a number of high-profile politicians have used the races and the candidates to raise funds for their own PACs, the #Daily #Beast reported #Wednesday.

They include members of both parties, like #Sens. #Mitch #McConnell, #Ted #Cruz, #Mike #Lee and #Kirsten #Gillibrand, and incoming #House members, who haven’t yet been sworn into #Congress. #And they include #President #Trump. They could still use the money raised for their PACs to campaign on behalf of the #Georgia candidates, but most of it will be controlled by their respective committees.

#When the #Lincoln #Project, an anti-Trump political action committee founded by conservatives, tweeted out the #Daily #Beast story, another #Twitter user pointed to the group’s own #Peach #State fundraising.

“The #Lincoln #Project raised $4.8 million between #November 24th and #December 16th hyping the #Georgia #Senate runoff elections,” wrote #Rob #Pyers, of the nonpartisan #California #Target #Book, which monitors and reports on political campaigns. “#Since then, it has spent $1.1 million on independent expenditures in those races and paid #Steve #Schmidt $1.5 million.”

#Schmidt, a co-founder of the #Lincoln #Project, was a #Republican strategist for years before breaking with the party over #President #Trump. The #Lincoln #Project did not immediately respond to a #Fox #News request for comment.

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The #Georgia candidates themselves have raised record-breaking sums ahead of the runoffs.

#Both #Ossoff and #Warnock have raised more than $100 million each over the past two months. #In the same span, both #Perdue and #Loeffler raised more than $60 million apiece.

The previous record of quarterly fundraising for a #Senate campaign was $57 million.

#Fox #News’ #Samuel #Dorman and the #Associated #Press contributed to this report.