Tennessee’s primary elections are today, and in the state’s 6th Congressional District, it has been a heated race - especially on the Republican side.

And after the results are in, voters in Tennessee may have the answer to the question: If you put enough money into your own campaign, can you win?

On the Republican side, there have been three serious contenders: Diane Black, Jim Tracy and Lou Ann Zelenik. As you can see on the graph below, these three candidates have been far ahead of the competition when it comes to funding for their campaigns.

There is a big discrepency between the three though. Black and Zelenik each put more than $400,000 of their own money. On the other hand, Tracy has relied on individual donations and has not used personal financing.

As you can see, Tracy has led the way with $715,898 in individual donations. Black has managed to secure $396,689 – which is just under what she put in herself.

It is quite the contrast in styles between those on the Republican side. The final graph shows what percentage of the candidates total funding was self-financed. Conservative Democrat George Erdel tops this chart because $4,079 of his $4,715 raised came from his own pocket. Zelenik takes the biggest self-funding prize on the Republican side thus far after funding 70.51% of her campaign herself.

I hope to have more from the winners of the primary elections today, and just how the money is flowing in and out of their campaigns in the weeks leading up to the general election in November.

[The data used in this post is from disclosure reports turned in to the Federal Election Commission]