By the day of the election on November 5, polls had shown that the voters thought it was time for Thurmond to retire, but they did not want to throw him out of office. Close spent almost a million dollars of his fortune to defeat Thurmond and his decision to raise a million dollars from outside sources was attacked by the Thurmond campaign of a lack of confidence by Close in his own campaign. Thurmond spent a little more than $2.6 million on the race and was said to have "dodged the bullet" by "The State" reporter Lee Bandy after his victory. The campaign aides of Thurmond stated he could have been defeated had either former Governor Richard Riley or 5th district congressman John M. Spratt, Jr. run against him.