The largest single expenditures by America PAC have been two $1.3 million digital media buys opposing Talarico. America PAC has not put any money into television ads, which is being handled by other groups, like MAGA Inc., the Trump-affiliated super PAC.
Meanwhile, the Senate Republican Conference–affiliated Texas PAC has so far booked the lion’s share of television ads. Punchbowl News reported last month that Texas PAC has booked around $120 million and was looking to buy $100 million in ad slots before November 3.
Ohio Senate Race
In Ohio’s Senate race, America PAC has spent $3.3 million against Democrat Sherrod Brown compared to $1.6 million supporting Republican candidate Jon Husted.
Husted has been struggling to distance himself from supporting data centers at a time when voters in the state have become fed up with rising costs associated with the projects. Husted has been tagged as “the face of data centers” because of a planned Nvidia data center project in Ohio that will be leased by OpenAI, and for his past support for data centers when he served in the state government.
The effort by Brown to cast Husted as the champion of data centers has in fact been so effective that a memo by the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm in August said it was tying an anchor around the neck of Husted’s public polling.
At a rally this week in Ohio, despite the cratering public support for data centers, Trump could not help himself and declared to the crowd: “We want them.” Husted’s campaign quickly replied that it should be a “local decision.”
Iowa Senate Race
In Iowa, America PAC has spent $1.5 million hitting Democratic candidate Josh Turek, while only spending roughly $100,000 supporting the Republican candidate Ashley Hinson—the biggest disparity, according to the WIRED tracker.
To put that another way: To date, Musk’s political operation has spent a staggering 14 times more attacking Turek than supporting Hinson.