In the final weeks leading up to Election Day, a final infusion of outside money has helped Republicans catch up to or even outpace Democrats in spending in many of the races we consider the most competitive, according to data from AdImpact. However, most crucially, given that candidates get the lowest ad rates, money from the better-funded Democratic incumbents and candidates or challengers has helped them withstand even higher investments from the major outside superPACS, Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) for Republicans and Senate Majority PAC (SMP) for Democrats. In this analysis, even thought many other outside entities are spending, we wanted to compare candidate dollars and SLF and SMP buys, given those are the largest groupings across the map.
Unsurprisingly, we see that the four of the five most expensive races are the quartet of contests we also have in our Toss Up column: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin. Georgia comes in first, with nearly $128.5 million spent so far in total — a number that could rise exponentially given the increasing likelihood this race might go into overtime
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