United States Senate election in Georgia, 2014

Republican primary

The primary was held on May 20, 2014. No candidate won more than 50% of the vote, so a runoff was held between the top two candidates, David Perdue and Jack Kingston. The 30.6 percent won by Perdue is the lowest ever for a first-place finisher in a Georgia U.S. Senate primary by either party in state history.

Declared

Withdrew

Declined

Polling

Runoff

The runoff was held on July 22, 2014, which Perdue won with 50.9% of the vote.

Polling

Campaign

With Democratic Congressman John Barrow passing on the race, Nunn consulted with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee about possibly running, as well as with Georgia political figures such as Shirley Franklin, Roy Barnes, and Andrew Young. Though she was little known to voters, Democrats embraced the hope that Nunn, with her executive experience as well as family name, could make their party once again competitive in-state.

On July 22, 2013, Nunn declared herself a candidate for U.S. Senate. She said: "Our opportunity is to define ourselves. I'm going to talk a lot about the deficit. Neither side of the equation is really tackling that. I think people are really tired of the mudslinging and the silliness of this." If elected, Nunn would become the 29th Georgian elected to the U.S. Senate or U.S. House with a family member who previously served in Congress, and the first since her father (who is the grandnephew of Carl Vinson).

She raised $1.7 million in campaign funds during the third quarter of 2013, more than twice that of any Republican running. She followed that with a $1.6 million fourth quarter and a $2.4 million first quarter of 2014, again the most of anyone in the race.

On May 20, 2014, Nunn won the Democratic primary for the Senate seat with 75 percent of the vote, having skipped many of the debates and public forums where three other little-known candidates appeared.

Declared

Withdrew

Declined

Declared

Campaign

Following the conclusion of the two primaries, the race was set up as being between two self-described political "outsiders" with well-known-in-state political family names, each seeking to reach moderate and independent voters.

In July 2014, National Review, a conservative media outlet, reported on a leaked Nunn campaign memo from December 2013 which made frank recommendations on strategy for Nunn's path to victory in Georgia. The leaked memo said that likely attack lines against Nunn would include that she was a "lightweight", "too liberal", and "not a 'real' Georgian". The memo said that Nunn should feature images of her and her family in rural settings in order to connect with rural voters, and suggested that Nunn focus on African American clergy to raise enthusiasm for her candidacy among African American voters and that Nunn focus her efforts on Jews and Asians to raise money.

First Lady Michelle Obama campaigned on behalf of Nunn, as part of an effort to increase African-American voter turnout in midterm elections.

Nunn's stump speech emphasized an appeal to bipartisanship. She received support and donations from former Republican Senators Richard Lugar and John Warner, both of whom were close to her father, and support from former Georgia Senator and Governor Zell Miller, a Democrat who had endorsed Republicans over the previous decade. Nunn's campaign commercials used photographs of herself and President George H. W. Bush, who founded Points of Light, together in campaign commercials and she mentioned him often on the campaign trail. However, in June 2014, Bush sent out a fundraising letter that, while not mentioning her by name, called on Republican donors to support the Republican nominee, and in September 2014, Bush endorsed Perdue. In October 2014, Bush emphatically objected to Nunn continuing to use a photograph of him in her campaign, saying that such actions were disrespectful. Points of Light chair Neil Bush neither endorsed nor opposed her candidacy, but did label as "shameful" an advertisement approved by Perdue that used a past episode to say that Points of Light "gave money to organizations linked to terrorists."

As the campaign moved on, Nunn made her father a focal point, staging joint appearances with him at military bases and saying that she would emulate his bipartisan approach to legislating. She has also said that she would seek a seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee that he once chaired.

Perdue stated that he entered politics out of concern for the rising national debt. He supported repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. He also supported a constitutional balanced budget amendment and comprehensive tax reform. In addition, he pledged to limit himself to two terms in the Senate, if elected.

Perdue touted his business experience, and particularly his experience at Dollar General, saying, "We added about 2,200 stores, created almost 20,000 jobs and doubled the value of that company in a very short period of time. Not because of me, but because we listened to our customers and employees." He received the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Business. But he was hurt during the campaign by revelations that he had in the past been an enthusiastic supporter of outsourcing. Nunn targeted past pre-political statements of Perdue where he had said he was "proud of" his outsourcing efforts, and for the job losses that followed the final closure of Pillowtex.

Policy positions

Perdue supported repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. He supported a constitutional balanced budget amendment and comprehensive tax reform. He pledged to limit himself to two terms in the Senate, if elected.

Nunn supported abortion rights. Nunn believed that members of Congress should be forced to pass a budget each year, or forfeit their pay. Nunn supported expanding federally mandated background checks to include all local sales to prevent the possibility that mentally ill persons would be able to buy a firearm. Nunn said that going forward, some aspects of the Affordable Care Act should be fixed rather than the whole law being eliminated. She criticized Georgia's refusal to accept Medicaid expansion under the act. Following the start-up problems with the associated HealthCare.gov website, Nunn broke with the Obama administration and said that the individual mandate portion of the law should be delayed. Nunn supported the 2013 Senate immigration plan that would have allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the United States while waiting for American citizenship. Nunn favored construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. She opposed the Obama administration's proposed cuts to defense spending. On the topic of same-sex marriage, Nunn said she personally favored it, but that the decision should be made on a state-by-state basis.

Debates

Perdue and Nunn held debates on August 21, October 7, October 26, and November 2.

Fundraising

The following are Federal Election Commission disclosures for the October Quarterly reporting period.

David Perdue has funded more than $1.9 million of his campaign personally; the second-largest total of any Senate candidate.

A total of $23,355,844 has been raised by the candidates for this race. Of that, a total of $22,917,058 has been spent by all of the campaigns. To put that in perspective, that is $2.31 per Georgian.

Spending

This Senate race, as many others across the United States, was heavily influenced by outside PACs and organizations who support various candidates. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was expected to spend almost $50 million on elections in 2014 and endorsed Republican Jack Kingston. More than $4.6 million has been spent on advertising in the Georgia race by outside groups so far. In 2008, outside groups spent more than $20 million in the Georgia Senate race.

Results breakdown

Perdue's victory was part of a wave of Republican victories across the nation. Nunn failed to improve on Obama's losing percentages in the state from two years earlier and any changes in the state's demographics were not enough for Democrats to prevail. Nevertheless, Nunn took credit for making the party competitive in the otherwise inhospitable South: "We put Georgia in play. We have reminded people what a two-party system looks like."