• Beyond Georgia, the three other most-expensive U.S. Senate races are in Pennsylvania (a combined $119 million in ad spending by Republicans and Democrats), Arizona ($90 million) and Nevada ($74 million) during our measurement window.
• In Pennsylvania there is no incumbent—U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R) announced in October 2020 that he wouldn’t seek reelection—which led to a contentious primary race between two well-financed Republican candidates: former TV doctor Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund manager Dave McCormick. Oz won the Republican primary in a squeaker, but is currently polling behind the Democratic nominee, John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. Republicans, of course, hope to take control of the U.S. Senate, so the prospect of Oz, who was endorsed by Trump, possibly losing to Fetterman will surely drive ad spending in this race—particularly by the GOP—even further into the stratosphere.
• In Arizona, Democrats are so far outspending Republicans 2-to-1—$60 million vs. $30 million—on campaign ads in the U.S. Senate race, which pits incumbent Mark Kelly, the presumptive Democratic nominee, against a Republican candidate to be determined in the Aug. 2 primary. Donald Trump has endorsed Blake Masters, a venture capitalist backed by Peter Thiel, the billionaire technologist and fellow venture capitalist; Masters is the president of the Thiel Foundation, a private grant-making organization.