More money is pouring into the Pennsylvania Senate race and Republican Dave McCormick is the lucky recipient.
Keystone Renewal, the main super PAC supporting his campaign, is reserving $30 million worth in television time in the Keystone State.
Analysts say the super PAC has already allocated $3.6 million on mostly positive ads about McCormick, but plans to shift toward more negative spots aimed at his opponent, Democrat Bob Casey.
Senate contests have received the most money in future ad reservations so far, with $431M booked in fall. Pennsylvania’s race is the third most-expensive at $45.3 million entering the week, trailing just Ohio ($154.6M) and Montana ($104.3M). According to AdImpact, Democrats are outspending Republicans in every Senate seat by over $1.0M, except for Indiana where Republicans have a $800K spending advantage.
How important is the Commonwealth’s race for the U.S. Senate? As of this writing, out of every $10 spent on television, radio and digital advertising in the country, $3 is being spent in Pennsylvania.
According to the most recently available campaign finance reports, Keystone Renewal had raised more than $21 million as of April 3, much of it from Wall Street executives and investors.
The largest contributions to the super PAC have been $10 million from Ken Griffin, the chief executive of Citadel; $2 million from Paul Singer, the president of Elliott Management; and $1 million from Jeff Yass, a founder of Susquehanna International Group.
The Casey campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the main campaign arm of Senate Democrats, have spent the most on ads in the race. The committee has spent about $9 million on broadcast, cable and digital ads, while Mr. Casey’s campaign has spent $8.5 million.
“David McCormick’s billionaire backers are pouring money into Pennsylvania to try to distract from his record of investing in Chinese military companies, supporting a dangerous abortion ban and lying about where he lives,” said Maddy McDaniel, a spokeswoman for the Casey campaign. “Pennsylvanians already know that McCormick can’t be trusted.”
The race is expected to be among the most closely-watched in the country with the Senate majority possibly hanging in the balance.