The 2022 midterm elections were the most expensive in U.S. history, with control of the Senate and House of Representatives up for grabs.
More than $16.7 billion, yes, billion, was spent in both federal and state elections nationwide.
In the end, Democrats held on to their majority in the Senate, while Republicans scored enough wins to take control of the House.
The most expensive matchup was in Georgia, where a general election and runoff race between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Republican challenger Herschel Walker saw more than $425 million in total spending, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit group that tracks political spending. The numbers across the board have been staggering. In four of the top five races, outside groups spent more than the candidates.
Here are the top five most expensive Senate midterm elections this year.
GEORGIA: $419 million
Two years ago, more than $920 million was spent on getting a pair of Georgia Democratic Senate hopefuls into Congress.
Of that, $460 million was doled out in the contest between Warnock and his GOP challenger, then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA). In the other race, Jon Ossoff bested then-Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) in a matchup that brought in $514 million to support the candidates. At the time, the races were among the most expensive to date.
This year, the trend continued, with $401 million spent in the Senate race between Warnock and Walker in the general election.
Warnock outpaced Walker in spending and fundraising, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Warnock raised $150.5 million, spent $126.2 million, and had $29.7 million on hand as of Nov. 16. Walker raised $58.3 million, spent $48.5 million, and had $9.8 million on hand.
Neither candidate had enough votes to score an outright win on Nov. 8, and they were forced into a Dec. 6 runoff.
The four-week sprint to the polls brought in nearly $80 million in just television and radio ads. In all, $335 million has been spent buying airtime in the race, according to AdImpact. About $54 million was spent on pro-Warnock ads, while $25 million was spent on pro-Walker ads during the runoff.
“There’s never been anything like it,” Bob Houghton, the president of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, a trade group that represents TV and radio stations, told the New York Times. “It just keeps coming.”
During the runoff election, super PACs spent astronomical sums of money for their candidate.
Georgia Honor, a group linked to the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC, spent more than $24 million in ads. Majority Forward, another group affiliated with Senate Majority PAC, partnered with America Votes to spend $11 million on door-knocker events. The Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), spent $15 million in the runoff for Walker, while Americans for Prosperity Action spent $4.5 million for the Dec. 6 contest.
PENNSYLVANIA: $406 million
The Keystone State’s race between Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and GOP challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz turned into the second most expensive Senate race in the country.
The Fetterman and Oz camps along with political allies spent a combined $312 million in the general election. Primary candidates spent $61 million collectively, according to OpenSecrets.
Fetterman, who won the general election, raised $73.5 million, spent $72.7 million, and had $858,894 on hand as of Nov. 28. Oz raised $50.7 million, spent $48.9 million, and had $1.8 million on hand. When it came to outside spending, pro-Fetterman groups spent $35.1 million, while groups opposing him spent $83.9 million. Groups that supported Oz spent $15.1 million, while groups that opposed the TV doctor spent $88.7 million.
The race between the two candidates was close heading into Election Day, but soon after the polls closed, it was clear Fetterman would be the victor.
Most analysts the Washington Examiner spoke to post-mortem said Oz’s loss came down to muddled messages, missed opportunities, and his inability to connect to everyday Pennsylvanians.
“In addition to an increasing political divide, there is a cultural divide that often pairs together,” David McLaughlin, political strategist and host of the Kudzu Vine podcast, told the Washington Examiner. “The Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race was intriguing because it pitted a ‘Carhartt Democrat’ versus a ‘Brooks Brothers Republican.’ I think there were a lot of rural, GOP-leaning Pennsylvania voters that thought even though they don’t agree with John Fetterman on many issues, he was more like them than Mehmet Oz.”
Conservatives this cycle have expressed concern over the quality of candidates like Oz, a political newcomer who tried to project a folksy vibe but to many came off as insincere.
ARIZONA: $255 million
Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-AZ) reelection campaign against GOP challenger Blake Masters was the third most expensive race in 2022. Almost $236 million was spent on the matchup between the ex-astronaut and the venture capitalist, with the bulk coming from outside groups, according to OpenSecrets.
Kelly was considered to be one of the most vulnerable senators up for reelection this year.
Masters, who counted billionaire Peter Thiel as a mentor and former President Donald Trump as a friend, had a good shot at beating Kelly, but funding following his primary win dried up, and Masters struggled to find footing with voters. Thiel had funneled $15 million into a super PAC to help his protege clinch the GOP nomination.
Outside groups spent $128 million in the Senate race. About $40 million of the outside spending was aimed at denying Kelly a full, six-year term in the Senate after he won a special election in 2020 to fill out the remaining two years that the late GOP Sen. John McCain was elected to in 2016. The anti-Masters spending, which largely came from Senate Majority PAC, totaled $38 million.
Kelly’s campaign raised more than $79 million and spent $73 million. Masters raised $12 million and spent about $9.4 million.
WISCONSIN: $222 million
Though he was outraised and outspent, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), one of the Republican Party’s most vulnerable candidates, managed to f
end off Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes in November. The candidates were neck and neck for most of the race, but Barnes, the state’s lieutenant governor, started slipping in the polls after an avalanche of negative ads accused him of being soft on crime.
Both candidates tried to paint the other as too radical for Wisconsin.
Johnson raised $35.6 million, spent about $34.5 million, and had $1.2 million on hand, according to disclosures filed on Nov. 28.
Barnes had raised $41.6 million, spent nearly $40.7 million, and had $865,268 on hand, according to OpenSecrets.
Barnes’s defeat marked the only Senate race in a state President Joe Biden carried in 2020 that Democrats lost in 2022.
OHIO: $219 million
The Senate race in Ohio between Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and GOP challenger J.D. Vance was one of the costliest in state history.
Ryan raised a state record-breaking $57.6 million for his campaign, with $51.9 million coming from individual donors, $1.3 million from PACs, and nearly $4.3 million from transfers by the Tim Ryan Victory Fund 2022. Ryan also set a spending record for an Ohio Senate campaign, burning through $55.5 million, including $12 million in the post-general filing period.
Vance raised $15.6 million, including nearly $3 million in the post-general filing period. About $8.7 million came from individual donors, about $800,000 from PACs, $4.6 million from two joint fundraising committees he has, and $1.4 million from a loan. He spent $14.5 million on his campaign, and as of Nov. 28, he had close to $1 million in his campaign fund.
Despite being vastly outspent, Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author, easily won, besting Ryan by 6.1 points.
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Vance’s win continued a long line of GOP victories in the state. Former President Barack Obama was the last Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in 2012.
No Democrat has won nonjudicial statewide office there since 2008, apart from Sen. Sherrod Brown.
