📲 Get the latest on the midterms & more in the NPR App In key U.S. Senate races this year, candidates are soliciting donations from outside of their home states, and their out-of-state messaging is different from what they're running locally. An NPR analysis of Google Ads for four major Senate races — Iowa, Georgia, Ohio and Texas — found that the Democratic and Republican candidates spent more than $15 million on advertising related to fundraising in the 2025-26 election cycle.
About three quarters of that went to ads that ran nationally. Often, these ads focus on national talking points — such as attacking or defending President Trump, or turning the Senate blue or red — rather than local issues. For candidates like Georgia Sen.
Jon Ossoff and Iowa Democratic nominee Josh Turek, more than 80% of their itemized individual contributions have come from out of state. The funneling of funds has affected at least four of the competitive Senate races, where a majority of the money is coming from outside the state. ActBlue and WinRed, two major grassroots fundraising platforms, are a major catalyst for out-of-state fundraising.
Because this technology is inexpensive to run, it incentivizes candidates to rely on digital ads, according to Zachary Albert, a professor of politics at Brandeis University. "ActBlue and WinRed really reduced the transaction costs for contributing," Albert said. "Even if you're only yielding like a $5 or $10 contribution from someone like the costs of soliciting that are so much lower than they used to be, that it makes it worthwhile." With both parties — and each candidate — now having fundraising platforms, political hopefuls increasingly need to stand out from the crowd and are often shifting their messaging to a broader audience, which can result in using polarizing messaging to solicit funds.
For in-state and out-of-state ads, candidates tend to have two different sets of talking points, according to Wesleyan Media Project's Michael Franz. "In a general election campaign for a [local] TV ad, a candidate will never say, 'I'm the Democrat,' because they want to appeal to moderates and swing voters and they want voters across the aisle," Franz said. "But with a digital ad that's airing outside of your state, the party label becomes more important." This is reflected in many digital ads.
Former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown — who is seeking to regain a place in the Senate — calls to turn his state blue while Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins asks people to help turn his state's Senate seat red.
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