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In an arena usually reserved for rodeos and livestock shows, Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn told a boisterous crowd she was "glad to be home."

Her Republican opponent in the Georgia race, David Perdue, stood on the same debate stage and bellowed, "Welcome to Perdue country."

Neither candidate lives near the fairgrounds, much less among cattle or row crops. Nunn is a nonprofit executive who resides in a liberal neighborhood near downtown Atlanta, while Perdue is a wealthy former corporate CEO who lives behind multiple gates on a coastal island.

But both candidates spent their formative years in middle Georgia, and both have made a concerted play for rural and small-town voters despite the state's population shift to cities and suburbs. The same dynamic exists in Senate races in several other Southern states Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and North Carolina that will help determine which major party controls the Senate after the Nov. 4 election.

For Republicans, six seats from a Senate majority, it's a matter of maximizing their edge outside of cities by capitalizing one more time among white voters who dislike President Barack Obama and Democratic standard-bearers like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. For Democrats, the challenge is making elections about something other than Obama as they again try to reclaim middle-class and poor whites who once anchored President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition.

A Nunn campaign memo lays out the electoral math: To reach her 1.4 million-vote target, she needs about 160,000 more white votes than the 412,000 that Democrat Roy Barnes got for his gubernatorial bid in 2010, the last national midterm election. Ideally, much of the increase would come from suburban women, but Nunn still would need to add support outside metro Atlanta, home to 6 million of the state's 10 million residents.

Republicans acknowledge that Nunn may have a small opening, at least in south Georgia, where her father, former Sen. Sam Nunn, remains popular among erstwhile "Southern Democrats." Rob Collins, director of the national GOP's Senate campaign arm, said Perdue's name ID is low in some rural pockets because he concentrated on metro Atlanta in the primary, while his runoff rival, Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah, dominated the south. "He's got to get down there and work on that," Collins said of Perdue.

GOP ads accuse Nunn of being a "rubber stamp" for Obama's "liberal agenda." In Kentucky, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell tells voters that his Democratic challenger, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, was "handpicked by Barack Obama and Harry Reid." Republicans running against Democratic incumbents Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu in Louisiana and Kay Hagan in North Carolina all say they're running to demote Reid and hamstring Obama.

Republicans attack the incumbents' 2010 votes for the president's health care overhaul. McConnell says Grimes would play along with Obama's regulation of coal-fired power plants, which he blames for 7,000 lost jobs in Kentucky. Perdue says he wants to serve on the Senate's Agriculture Committee and mocks Nunn's wish for the same appointment as window dressing.

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Democrats Try to Regain Lost Votes Outside Cities

MSNBC host joins Democrats in grotesque get out the vote race baiting

By: dcexaminer

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MSNBC host joins Democrats in grotesque get out the vote race baiting - Video

Bill Clinton Campaigns in Michigan for Democrats
Just a week after Hillary Clinton campaigned for Democrats in Michigan, her husband came to Flint for the same thing. Former President Bill Clinton endorsed Mark Schauer and Gary Peters. He...

By: FOX47News

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Bill Clinton Campaigns in Michigan for Democrats - Video

In this file photo, Sen. Charles Schumer D-New York, speaks as Sen. Tom Harkin D-Iowa, right, listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

With midterm elections just over a week away, a number of Senate Democrats are sweating it out in close races across the country. But if they thought their colleagues would spare no expense to save the Democratic majority, they might want to think again.

All told, Senate Democrats who are either retiring, already retired, or not facing competitive elections this year have socked away roughly $52 million in campaign funds, according to the Huffington Post, and their refusal to distribute that money to their vulnerable compatriots is raising hackles in the party.

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With only two weeks left until Election Day, the GOP needs to win six seats in order to retake control of the Senate. At this point, CBS News pol...

"We all get multiple daily desperate emails begging for money, especially as Democrats are on the verge of losing the Senate," one top strategist told HuffPost. "Meanwhile, some senators are sitting on millions."

Several senators have come under particularly intense scrutiny for their hoarding. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, holds almost $2.4 million in his campaign account even though he's retiring and his would-be successor, Iowa Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley, is struggling.

Harkin reportedly refused to give Braley any additional money despite the personal pleas of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. Instead, the retiring senator is keeping his cash to build a public policy center after he leaves office.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the number three Senate Democrat, is sitting on $12.8 million, but he will not be up for reelection until 2016. Though Schumer is not expected to face a competitive opponent, New York can be a very expensive state for campaigns.

And former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana, has been out of office for almost 4 years, but he still has $9.8 million in his campaign coffers. Bayh told the Huffington Post that he'd transferred about $1.5 million to other Democrats in recent years, but he acknowledged that part of his decision to retain such a large sum is political.

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As Senate Democrats sweat midterms, some colleagues hoard cash

DALLAS At St. Paul United Methodist Church, one of this citys oldest African American churches, fiery young pastor Richie Butler delivered a message last Sunday that hit home with the white woman sitting at the center of the second pew.

Dont get confused between success and significance, Butler said. This day! This is your moment! Dont miss your moment!

When Wendy Daviss turn came to give her own testimony, she began: Very fitting with your sermon today, pastor.

For Davis, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, success is looking all but out of reach. If there was a moment when she might have leveraged her national celebrity to break the Republicans 20-year lock on statewide office here, it appears to have passed. Davis has proven a disappointment as a candidate, and Democrats lament privately that her campaign has been a mess.

The question that remains to be answered on Election Day is more about significance: How much will Daviss candidacy have done, along with other Democratic efforts, toward making their party truly competitive in Texas?

Texas has 38 electoral votes second only to Californias 55 and putting it into play would change the balance of the nations politics.

Its the question right now among people who are watching this stuff: Can the Democrats win by losing, and where is that line? said James R. Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

Recent public polls give Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the GOP nominee, a double-digit lead.

The latest bad news came on Thursday, with a University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey that showed Abbott 16points ahead of Davis. Her campaign noted that it was conducted over the Internet regarded as less reliable than surveying through traditional interviews and maintained that their internal numbers show the race is closer. But the Texas Tribune results are in line with a recent random sample telephone survey sponsored by Houston Public Media and KHOU-TV, which also put Abbott 16points over Davis.

One benchmark, Henson said, is whether Davis will do significantly better than 2010 Democratic nominee Bill White, the Houston mayor who lost to incumbent Rick Perry by close to 13points. If not, the results in November could undermine the idea that money and organization are the key to winning for Democrats in Texas.

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Has Wendy Davis helped or hurt the Democrats in Texas?