By Dawn Kopecki
NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Republican groups have poured $14 million into advertising in Ohio over the past week to bolster Senator Jon Husted, as recent polls show the Republican trailing Democrat Sherrod Brown in a race that could help determine control of the US Senate.
The spending surge is driven by super PACs linked to President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk, the Koch political network and Senate Republican leadership ahead of the November 3 special election. The winner will serve out the remaining two years of the term vacated by JD Vance when he became vice president in 2025.
AdImpact, a political advertising tracking firm, said the Husted-Brown contest has attracted $298 million in advertising spending so far, more than any other Senate race this cycle, and could become the costliest advertising battle of the 2026 midterms.
Despite an early lead in polling, Husted now trails Brown by 3 to 5 percentage points in the most recent surveys. Brown, who served three terms in the US Senate until 2025, has also significantly outraised Husted, bringing in $38.6 million compared with the Republican’s $14.3 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The race is crucial for both Republicans and Democrats because, while Ohio has leaned Republican in recent federal elections, it remains fiercely contested in statewide races.
The Senate Leadership Fund and five other Republican-aligned super PACs, which can raise unlimited sums of money, accounted for the $14 million advertising blitz over the past week, Federal Election Commission filings through Wednesday showed.
No Going Back PAC, a group closely tied to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, has led the advertising drive with $6.7 million on television, digital and mail ads over September 10-11, according to FEC data. It has spent more than $92 million on midterm advertising, including $13.4 million in Ohio, according to AdImpact.
Ads from that group as well as Musk’s America PAC and Americans for Prosperity Action, backed by Koch Inc., attacked Brown over issues such as his positions on transgender rights and bank bailouts and sought to portray him as aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.
A spokesperson for Husted declined to comment. Brown’s campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer said it was “no surprise that giant corporations and billionaires are spending tens of millions of dollars to save Jon Husted’s flailing campaign.”
The Republican super PACs have tripled their weekly spending against Brown in Ohio in recent weeks.
‘POP-UP’ PACS
Some of the newest spenders may not disclose their donors until shortly before Election Day but have links to Trump supporters. Research Director Brendan Glavin of OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finance, described them as “pop-up” PACs that, because of their recent registration dates, will not have to identify donors until mid-October.
Two such groups, Ohio Flyer PAC and Buckeyes PAC, spent more than $3 million combined over the past week. Both share a treasurer with a pro-Trump super PAC in the 2016 campaign founded by then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and billionaire Republican donor Tom Barrack.
The US Senate race between Brown and Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024 set a record for non-presidential contests with $486 million in advertising spending, according to AdImpact.
(Reporting by Dawn Kopecki in New York; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Cynthia Osterman)
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