BY NICK EVANS
While Ohioans are worrying over the cost of living and getting pummeled with campaign ads in the waning weeks of the midterm election, outside groups are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Ohio’s races for governor and U.S. Senate.
The candidates are spending heavily on TV spots to promote themselves, attack their opponents, or refute the attacks their opponents made about them.
The factor turning a glut of campaign ads into an onslaught is spending from outside groups.
In Ohio’s governor’s race, Democrat Dr. Amy Acton has repeatedly out-raised her Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, but that advantage vanishes when you factor in the Super PACs supporting Ramaswamy’s bid.
In its most recent quarterly report, the Ramaswamy aligned Super PAC, V-PAC, raised more than $18 million. A single donor, Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass wrote Ramaswamy a check for $10 million — doubling his previous contributions.
In her most recent filing, Acton reported raising $6 million in a month.
Ohio’s U.S. Senate race has drawn even more outside attention. A recent report from the advertising tracking firm AdImpact has Ohio as the most expensive Senate race in the country, with outside groups spending more than $325 million.
In both races, Republicans hold a significant financial advantage. However, polling continues to suggest a relatively close race with the Democrats holding a roughly 4-point advantage in polling averages.
The race for governor
Outside of the campaigns themselves, there are three major players buying ads in the Ohio governor’s race: committees tied to the Republican Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association, and Ramaswamy’s Super PAC.
The most recent Ohio campaign finance reports only cover expenditures through June of this year. Ramaswamy’s campaign has certainly spent more on ads since that cut off, but its reported direct spending on advertising tallies a little more than $12 million.
Over the same timeframe, V-PAC spent $14.2 million on advertising. But after the latest report? That total ballooned to $44.6 million.
The Republican Governors Association cut an ad criticizing Acton for refusing to debate. The Ohio Capital Journal reached out about how much the group spent on Acton attack ads.
In an email, an RGA spokesman said that “roughly $20 million has been spent on advertising to-date,” but did not clarify what portion of that total relates to Ohio’s race.
Acton’s campaign has spent just $3.3 million on ads through the end of June — about a quarter of Ramaswamy’s direct spending over the same span. Like Ramaswamy, she’s gotten help from her party’s governors association.
The Democratic Governors Association has run a handful of ads attacking Ramaswamy or boosting Acton. The DGA funds advertising through a new state committee called Ohioans For Lower Costs.
That group’s filings only cover transactions through the end of June, and its only reported transaction is a $1 million contribution from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The committee’s next reporting deadline is later this week.
Ohio Capital Journal emailed the DGA for information about its spending, but got no response.
Regardless of the exact dollar figure, the DGA’s help doesn’t change the overall picture.
AdImpact reported earlier this month that Republican aligned groups have spent or reserved more than $100 million in ads in the governor’s race, compared with about $40 million from Democratic groups.
The U.S. Senate race
Ohio’s U.S. Senate race is following what has become a familiar pattern. Through the end of June, Democrat Sherrod Brown has raised $52 million compared to the $19 million Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted has collected.
In 2022 and 2024, Democratic candidates dramatically outraised their Republican opponents, as well. Outside spending torpedoed that advantage.
The Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund has been a major — and growing — fixture in that spending.
In 2022, the group plowed $32.5 million into attacks against Democrat Tim Ryan.
In 2024, that spending nearly doubled to $63.6 million attacking Democrat Sherrod Brown.
In the current cycle, the Senate Leadership Fund has spent $54.5 against Brown so far.
They’re no longer the only big player. Trump-backed MAGA Inc. and the No Going Back PAC have poured more than $20 million into the race, and Elon Musk’s America PAC has put in another $5.7 million.
Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity has spent $10.6 million, and the cryptocurrency groups Defend American Jobs and Digital Freedom Fund have spent another $5.7 million and $3.5 million respectively.
All told, outside groups have reported spending $113.5 million attacking Brown.
They’ve also spent heavily supporting Husted. To this point, outside groups have dropped another $58.4 million on messaging praising the Republican’s record.
The biggest share of that spending was nearly $30 million from the crypto group Defend American Jobs.
Brown’s campaign has benefited significantly from outside spending either supporting his bid or attacking Husted, but not to the same degree.
Outside groups have spent $69.5 million attacking Husted so far. Democrats’ primary Senate Super PAC WinSenate and an associated group called Duty and Country PAC accounted for $44.2 million of that total.
Meanwhile, outside groups spent a little more than $7 million supporting Brown, led by $2.2 million from the group American Bridge 21st Century.
AdImpact puts the total cost of Ohio’s Senate race at $422.6 million when you factor in spending by the candidates and the outside groups backing them.
At its highest point, GOP-aligned spending cleared $30 million in a week.
Most of that nearly half a billion dollars in advertising has already aired, but don’t expect the ads to wane before Election Day.
As of Oct. 12, AdImpact reported, there’s more than $80 million-worth in reservations in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race alone.
