As Election Day approaches, voters are considering which candidates they’ll support in November. And outside groups are spending a lot of money to influence that decision.
Record amounts of campaign cash are flooding Virginia politics this year — more than $9 million in outside money from groups not affiliated with candidates. According to data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, non-candidate spending is at record levels — more than four times what outside groups spent in the last midterm election.
Kyle Kondik at UVA says most of that money is going to one very expensive race.
“I think that Virginia Ten, the Barbara Comstock seat, has been seen as competitive, certainly in both 2014 and 2016. But now Virginia Ten is seen as one of the top tier Democratic pickup opportunities in the whole country.”
Incumbent Republican Scott Taylor also faces a serious challenger in the Second Congressional District. Quentin Kidd at Christopher Newport University says that district has been competitive on and off over the years. But two other closely watched races are in seats that have been safe Republican territory for years.
“There’s never been a time in modern political history when the Seventh Congressional District has been competitive. The same goes for the Fifth, even though there’s not a lot of outside money being spent on it, it’s increasingly being talked about as competitive.”
Even though record amounts of campaign cash have already been spent, it’s only the beginning. All the big money is spent in the last few weeks of an election.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
