Democratic groups put $81.7 million into advertising for three Senate races in Ohio, Alaska and Iowa. Across the four closest Senate races in the South, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana, they spent $11.8 million. That is roughly nine times as much per race outside the South, according to AdImpact ad-tracking data as Capital B reported.
The South is where the party’s most loyal voters live. In Mississippi and Louisiana the Democratic nominees were Black: Scott Colom and Jamie Davis. Colom defeated Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith to become Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction. Davis lost in Louisiana by 1.7 points.
The Mississippi money came late. When Sen. Raphael Warnock urged donors in April to take the race seriously, Capital B reported, the audience laughed. Democratic political action committees committed $1.2 million in advertising on Oct. 20, two weeks before Election Day, once the race looked competitive.
In Louisiana, Rep. Troy Carter asked for $2 million for Davis in the final three weeks. “Not nearly as much as we would have liked” arrived, Capital B reported. More than half of the nearly two dozen voters it interviewed in Baton Rouge and New Orleans on Election Day had never heard of Davis or knew little about him. Davis put the share of voters unfamiliar with him at 35% to 40%.
In Florida, Angie Nixon fell about 3 points short. She had no money for a single television ad in the final weeks. An advocate told Capital B: “Too many party leaders treated her as a risky choice because she is a Democratic Socialist.”
Party strategists can argue that a donor spends where a dollar is likeliest to flip a seat. The numbers still show who got the money and who got the laughter. Davis lost by 1.7 points while more than half the voters Capital B spoke to knew little or nothing about him.
The organizers quoted by Capital B put the bill plainly. “So for every district that was won all over this country, you owe a debt to Baton Rouge,” one former candidate said. Democrats take control of the House in January. Whether they treat Black Southern voters as a base to be funded or a margin to be counted will show in the next Senate cycle.
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