for resources to make its arguments these were the most expensive senate contests in us history including the campaigning before the runoff more than 469 million was spent in the perdueossoff contest according to the center for responsive politics and more than 362 million was dedicated to the loefflerwarnock racethat the races were competitive at all was a testament to the changing nature of georgiathough dominated by republicans for much of the past two decades the state is shifting because of an influx of newcomers immigrants and americanborn voters chasing warm weather and sun belt opportunity democratic hopes were buoyed not only by mr bidens victory but by the 2018 campaign of stacey abrams who ran a competitive but unsuccessful race for governorand the two senate aces were pushed into runoffs by some of the defining forces shaping national politicsmr ossoff made his political debut in 2017 as a freshfaced and virtually unknown candidate vying for an open house seat in suburban atlanta the special election served as one of the first major referendums on mr trump mr ossoff despite his obscurity was inundated with money from energized liberals across the countrymr ossoff lost the 2017 race but he carried his experience and name recognition into the 2020 battle where he forced mr perdue into a runoffin the other race ms loeffler was appointed to the senate by mr kemp in december 2019 to fill the seat of senator johnny isakson who retired because of health concernsbut his choice displeased mr trump who had wanted mr kemp to tap doug collins then a hardright congressman from georgia who had served as one of mr trumps most loyal defenders during his impeachmentmr collins jumped into the race anyway forcing ms loeffler far to the right at one point she aired an ad in which she said she was more conservative than attila the hunthe strategy helped ms loeffler win a place in the runoff but seemed to invalidate mr kemps original rationale for appointing her as she rebranded herself as a hardline trump loyalistrick rojas astead w herndon and sean keenan contributed reporting