Democrats post early fundraising edge in marquee 2026 Senate races

One bright spot for Democrats as they face a tough path to taking back the Senate this year: Their candidates are raising a lot of money.

Democrats outraised their GOP counterparts across several of this year’s marquee Senate races heading into 2026, according to new filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission on Saturday.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, the only Democrat running for reelection in a state Donald Trump won, enters the year with a massive fundraising advantage over any of his GOP rivals in battleground Georgia. Democrats in North Carolina and Ohio also started the year with a major financial edge over their GOP rivals.

But heated Democratic primaries have helped Republicans maintain a cash advantage in a few key states, including Michigan, Maine and Iowa.

Strong fundraising will be critical to Democrats’ efforts to hold all their seats — including several that are open following battleground senators’ retirements — while also flipping four Republican ones.

In a handful of primaries, including the Democratic contests in Michigan and Texas and the Republican lineup in Georgia, fourth-quarter fundraising numbers largely did not show any one candidate majorly distinguishing themselves from the rest.

Here’s a rundown of what the fundraising looked like in key Senate races.

Georgia

Ossoff holds a significant fundraising advantage over his Republican opponents duking it out in the primary. He raised $9.9 million in the final quarter of 2025 and ended the year with $25.5 million in his war chest — numbers that are substantially higher than all of his GOP rivals combined.

Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter brought in the most in the GOP primary, raising $1.7 million and entering 2026 with $4.1 million cash on hand. Ex-football coach Derek Dooley reported raising $1.1 million, while Rep. Mike Collins raised just shy of $825,000. Dooley ended the quarter with $2.1 million left in the bank, while Collins reported having $2.3 million.

While Ossoff holds a massive fundraising advantage, the gap is likely to shrink when the Republican nominee is selected in May and the party, including its donors, coalesces around one candidate.

North Carolina

Democratic former governor Roy Cooper maintains a fundraising advantage in North Carolina over former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley.

Cooper broke fundraising records when he launched his campaign and has continued to bring in large sums, raising $7 million from October through December last year, according to his filings with the FEC — nearly double the $3.8 million Whatley raised during the same period. Cooper entered 2026 with $12.3 million in his campaign coffers, a sizable haul that will be necessary as he prepares for November.

Whatley, who has been endorsed by Trump, ended the fourth quarter with $3.7 million in cash on hand. Both candidates — the likely nominees in the state’s Senate race — bring extensive donor networks from their prior roles, setting up North Carolina to be one of the most expensive contests this cycle.

Operatives in both parties say spending could reach $650 million to $800 million. Democrats are eying the North Carolina seat, left open by the retirement of GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, as one of their best pick up opportunities in November.

Michigan

In Michigan, Democrats are looking to hold retiring Sen. Gary Peters’ seat, but three Democratic front-runners are locked in a tight race, and their fundraising reflects it.

Rep. Haley Stevens holds an early fundraising advantage, raising $2.1 million during the fourth quarter of 2025 and entered the year with roughly $3 million in the bank. Widely seen as the establishment candidate in the contentious primary, Stevens benefits from being able to tap into her existing donor networks, but her opponents are not far behind. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow and physician Abdul El-Sayed each raised roughly $1.7 million and ended the year with around $1.9 million in the bank.

With Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary — later than most states — the Democratic candidates will need to sustain strong fundraising numbers through what is shaping up to be a long and expensive intraparty fight.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the frontrunner on the GOP side, raised $1.9 million and ended the fourth quarter with $3.5 million in cash on hand.

Rogers — the candidate most national Republicans have coalesced around — will benefit from being the main GOP candidate while Democrats get through their bruising primary. He also ran for the Senate in 2024, giving him a network of donors to tap into. The GOP is eying Michigan — where Trump won by just over a point in 2024 — as a top pickup opportunity in November.

Maine

Political newcomer and oysterman Graham Platner outraised both Gov. Janet Mills, his main Democratic rival, and incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, who is one of the party’s top targets as the only GOP senator representing a state won by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

Platner raised $4.6 million in the fourth quarter compared to $2.2 million for Collins and $2.7 million for Mills, who launched her campaign in mid-October.

But Collins, who has not formally launched her campaign yet, sits on far more cash than both her Democratic rivals, with a little over $8 million in the bank compared to $3.7 million for Platner and $1.3 million for Mills.

Ohio

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown significantly outraised Sen. Jon Husted in the fourth quarter, giving Democrats a boost in their longshot bid to flip the Senate seat in the state that has turned increasingly red. Brown raised $7.3 million, while Husted — appointed last year to fill the seat vacated by JD Vance becoming vice president — raised $1.5 million.

Brown, a prolific fundraiser, began 2026 with $9.9 million in his war chest. He is expected to need deep reserves again, after cryptocurrency-linked groups spent heavily against him during his unsuccessful 2024 reelection bid. Husted started the year with just under $6 million.

New Hampshire

In New Hampshire, Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas continued to comfortably outraise his Republican competition in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Pappas brought in $2.3 million in the fourth quarter and ended 2025 with $3.2 million cash on hand.

Former Sen. John Sununu, who was defeated by Shaheen in 2008 and is running with the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, raised $1.3 million and had $1.1 million cash on hand. His Republican primary rival Scott Brown, who briefly represented neighboring Massachusetts in the Senate, raised just $374,000 and had $907,000 in the bank.

Texas

Money is flowing into the Democratic primary in Texas, where Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico both raised over $6 million during the fourth quarter.

Crockett, who launched her Senate campaign in early December, raised $2 million from donors through the end of the month and transferred another $4.5 million from her previous House campaign account. But Talarico, a state representative from Austin, outraised Crockett and ended the year with more money in the bank. He started 2026 with $7.1 million in his war chest, compared to $5.6 million for the Dallas-area representative.

Both candidates outraised the Republican field by a wide margin. On the GOP side, state Attorney General Ken Paxton raked in $1.1 million, while incumbent Sen. John Cornyn raised $1 million for his campaign and another $4.1 million through a joint fundraising committee that has been running TV ads on his behalf. Rep. Wesley Hunt, polling in third in the GOP primary, raised just over $429,000.

Cornyn — whose reelection bid has been endorsed by the NRSC — still maintains a huge cash on hand advantage. He has more than $10 million in the bank between his campaign account and joint fundraising committee, a war chest that could prove pivotal in the final stretch of the March 3 primary — or an extended runoff . He is locked in a neck and neck race with Paxton.

Paxton entered 2026 with $3.7 million in the bank. Hunt had $778,660.

Iowa

Democrats duking it out in Iowa’s Senate primary posted modest fundraising hauls in the fourth quarter. State Rep. Josh Turek raised $677,000, while state Sen. Zach Wahls brought in $741,000. Nathan Sage, the third Democrat viewed as competitive for the nomination, brought in $229,000.

Wahls also entered 2026 with the cash on hand advantage. He had $733,000 left in his war chest, while Turek had just shy of $400,000. Sage had $86,000 in the bank at the start of the year.

Whichever Democrats wins will need serious money to try flipping the seat left open by retiring Sen. Joni Ernst.

Rep. Ashley Hinson brought in $1.6 million and had nearly $5.2 million in the bank at the end of 2025, a substantial fundraising advantage over all of her potential Democratic opponents.