Out-of-State Donors Fuel Senate Campaign War Chests, Reshaping Candidate Messaging

Candidates in some of the most closely watched U.S. Senate contests this year are raising large sums from donors outside their home states, and the pitch they make to those donors often differs from the one they deliver to local voters, according to an NPR analysis.

NPR reviewed Google Ads for four major Senate races, in Iowa, Georgia, Ohio and Texas. It found that Democratic and Republican candidates together spent more than $15 million on fundraising-related advertising in the 2025-26 cycle. About three quarters of that money paid for ads that ran nationally. For Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Iowa Democratic nominee Josh Turek, more than 80% of itemized individual contributions came from out of state. In at least four competitive races, most of the money is coming from outside the state.

Grassroots platforms ActBlue and WinRed are a major driver. Zachary Albert, a Brandeis University politics professor, said the platforms "really reduced the transaction costs for contributing." Even a $5 or $10 gift, he said, is now worth soliciting because the cost of asking is so much lower than it once was.

With both parties and every candidate now using such tools, hopefuls have to stand out, and that often pushes them toward broader and more polarizing messages. Michael Franz of the Wesleyan Media Project said a candidate in a general election local TV ad will rarely stress party identity, since moderates and swing voters are the target. In a digital ad airing outside the state, he said, the party label becomes more important.

Examples are easy to find. Former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is trying to return to the Senate, calls on supporters to turn his state blue. Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins asks people to help turn his state's Senate seat red. Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson uses ads to describe herself as "America First," while Ossoff attacks President Trump directly. Republicans hold the Senate now, but several toss-up races give Democrats a path to retake it. Ossoff's campaign told NPR it does not target audiences by location and is "powered by small-dollar donors because the Senator refuses donations from corporate PACs and federal lobbyists." Other campaigns declined to comment or did not respond.

Researchers see a broader shift. Daniel Hopkins of the University of Pennsylvania said candidates now answer to a local voter base and a larger, often nationwide donor base. Competing for votes means facing the other party's candidate, he said, but competing for dollars means vying for attention with other prominent candidates of one's own party. Hopkins also described "ATM districts" around the country that give heavily to one party. Sarah Bryner of Public Agenda said donors in lopsided states, such as California, often send money to competitive ones like Georgia or Texas.

Democrats got there first. ActBlue launched in 2004, nearly 15 years before Republicans introduced WinRed in 2019. Bryner said Republicans were slow to see the potential of small-dollar fundraising until Trump showed them a national audience of small donors ready to back their preferred candidates.

Limiting the flow is difficult. Hawaii will cap out-of-state donations beginning in 2027, but University of Massachusetts political scientist Raymond La Raja said national rules would be hard to craft constitutionally given Supreme Court rulings on campaign spending. In June, the court ruled in favor of coordinated campaign spending, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee has so far spent three times as much on advertisements as it had at this point in the previous midterms. La Raja suggested matching local donations with public funds, as New York City does. Bryner pointed to Alaska's law requiring ads to list their top three donors, with similar rules in Colorado and Virginia for online and broadcast ads.

Bryner doubts money alone decides outcomes. Candidates who outraised opponents with out-of-state funds, such as Amy McGrath against Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky and Beto O'Rourke against Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, often lost. "If you're getting all your money from outside of the state, those people can't vote for you," she said.