The most expensive Senate race in the country just got even more expensive — and the Republican in it is losing ground.

Outside groups aligned with President Trump, Elon Musk and the Koch political network poured roughly $14 million into Ohio television and digital advertising over the past seven days alone, in an urgent push to prop up Republican Sen. Jon Husted ahead of the November 3 special election. The race, triggered when Husted was appointed to fill the seat JD Vance vacated to become vice president, has already attracted $298 million in total ad spending — more than any other Senate contest this cycle, by far.

The spending surge comes as the numbers move the wrong way for Husted. Recent polling shows him trailing Democratic challenger and former Sen. Sherrod Brown by 3 to 5 percentage points, a reversal from earlier in the race when Husted held an edge. Brown has also dramatically outraised his opponent, pulling in $38.6 million to Husted's $14.3 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings — a gap Republican outside groups are now racing to close with their own money since the campaign itself can't.

Where the Money Is Coming From

The week's spending spree is being led by No Going Back, a Trump-aligned super PAC that has now spent $92 million nationally on this year's midterms, including $13.4 million in Ohio alone, with $6.7 million of that landing in the past week. The Senate Leadership Fund and five other Republican super PACs collectively matched that pace with roughly $14 million in weekly spending of their own, while Musk's America PAC and the Koch network's Americans for Prosperity Action have also been writing checks for Husted-friendly ads. Smaller "pop-up" groups with opaque donor rolls — Ohio Flyer PAC and Buckeyes PAC among them — have kicked in another $3 million combined, almost all of it tied to Trump-world operatives.

THE COSTLIEST SENATE RACE OF THE CYCLE JUST GOT A LOT MORE EXPENSIVE — AND A LOT MORE DESPERATE.

Ohio Republicans had treated Husted's seat as one of the safer holds on this year's map, given Trump's strong 2024 performance in the state. But Brown, who represented Ohio in the Senate for nearly two decades before losing his seat in 2024, has leaned into his old blue-collar, union-hall image, hammering Husted and the GOP on affordability and health care costs.

With roughly a month left before Election Day, the deluge of outside spending is unlikely to let up. Control of the Senate could hinge on just a handful of races like this one, and both parties have signaled they're prepared to keep writing checks all the way to November 3. For Ohio voters, that means more mailbox flyers, more ominous-sounding ads, and a mailbox-clogging finish to one of the most expensive single elections in American history.