Top super PAC backing Senate Republicans makes $141 million investment in midterms

A super PAC aligned with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is making a $141 million bet that the Republicans can win back the chamber’s majority in November’s midterm elections.

That’s how much money the Senate Leadership Fund is initially spending to run ads this autumn in crucial contests in important battleground states. The investment to reserve ad time, announced on Monday, is more than double what the top super PAC backing Republican Senate incumbents and candidates initially spent to reserve ad time in the 2020 election cycle.

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The record ad placement by the Senate Leadership Fund will be spent in six swing states, as well as Alaska, starting on Sept. 6 and running through Election Day on Nov. 8.

The largest investment – $37.1 million – is in Georgia, where Republicans are aiming to oust first-term Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and flip a blue seat red. 

The political action committee is dishing out $27.6 million to run ads in North Carolina, to hold the seat currently held by retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr, $24.6 million in Pennsylvania, where Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is retiring, and $15.2 million in Wisconsin, where GOP Sen. Ron Johnson is being heavily targeted by Democrats as he seeks a third term in the Senate.

The group is spending $15.1 million in Nevada, where they hope to oust first-term Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, and $14.4 million in neighboring Arizona, where another first-term Democrat, Sen. Mark Kelly, is running for re-election. The super PAC is also spending $7.4 million in Alaska, where longtime GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski faces a serious primary challenge from former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner Kelly Tshibaka, who is backed by former President Donald Trump.

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The Senate is currently split 50/50 between the two major parties, but the Democrats control the majority thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris through her constitutional role as president of the Senate.

That means the GOP needs a net gain of just one seat in the midterms to regain the majority they lost when they were swept in Georgia’s twin Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, 2021. And Democrats are facing historic headwinds – the party that wins the White House traditionally sufferers congressional loses in the ensuing midterms – and a difficult political climate that’s partially fueled by President Biden’s underwater approval ratings.

"This is such a strong year that we need to invest as broadly and deeply as we can," Senate Leadership Fund president Steven Law told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

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Law noted that there’s so much at stake because "in the Senate, majority control is everything. It determines what happens on the floor and what doesn’t happen. It will have an impact on future Supreme Court nominations."

One key battleground state where the Senate Leadership Fund is – at least initially – not investing is New Hampshire, where former governor and first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan is running for re-election. While the GOP views Hassan as vulnerable, no major Republican challenger has emerged. But the GOP field may not be set in the Granite State, which holds one the latest primaries in the nation, on Sep. 13.

Law noted that his group still feels "very confident that we will end up playing in New Hampshire."

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The announcement by the Senate Leadership Fund of its autumn ad reservations, which was first reported by Politico, comes after its Democratic rival, the Senate Majority PAC, signaled it would make an initial investment of $106 million to run ads.

The group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said its spending in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to start running spots starting in August. The combined initial spending of the two super PACs is nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

The Senate Leadership Fund hauled in $27 million during the January-March first quarter of fundraising, with some of the biggest donors in the GOP writing some big checks to help stuff the super PAC's coffers. 

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At the top of that list was Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire Blackstone chairman and chief executive officer, who contributed $10 million, and hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who donated $5 million.