With exactly one week until Election Day, the fight for control of the U.S. Senate is tilting on two Southern battlegrounds — and the money trail tells its own story. Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican super PAC aligned with Majority Leader John Thune, has pulled its remaining ad spending out of North Carolina's open Senate race and redirected a seven-figure sum to Kansas instead, according to CNN's reporting on the shift.

The pullback is a stark reversal from April, when the group pledged $71 million to defend the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis. It had already spent more than $30 million in the state backing GOP nominee Michael Whatley, the former RNC chair, against Democrat and former Gov. Roy Cooper. Polling has not been kind to Whatley in the meantime: the RealClearPolitics average has him trailing Cooper by close to 10 points, and some individual surveys have shown gaps twice that size.

A Second Retreat, 300 Miles South

Georgia tells a similar, if less dramatic, story. Sen. Jon Ossoff's campaign announced it raised another $33 million between July and September, entering the campaign's final stretch with $26 million still in the bank for a late ad blitz, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. His Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Collins, has leaned heavily on outside money to keep pace — Senate Leadership Fund and its allied nonprofit, One Nation, have committed $44 million to the race since April — but Collins's own campaign account has lagged badly behind Ossoff's.

"I AM WORRIED ABOUT HIM," TRUMP TOLD REPORTERS OF WHATLEY'S CHANCES IN NORTH CAROLINA

Even President Trump has voiced doubts about North Carolina, telling reporters he was "worried" about Whatley's standing, even as he praised him as a strong candidate, per Newsweek's account of the comments. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer seized on the Senate Leadership Fund's North Carolina pullback, writing online that it "says all you need to know about which direction the Senate majority is headed."

Why It Matters

Republicans currently hold the Senate 53-47, meaning Democrats need a net gain of four seats on Nov. 3 to flip control of the chamber. Georgia and North Carolina were both rated toss-ups for most of the year before the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved them to "lean Democrat" territory in the spring — a rating that has only looked more plausible as the campaign's final ad reservations have shifted.

None of this means either race is decided. Collins's campaign disputes the extent of the funding gap, and a smaller pro-Whatley group, Old North Action, insists enough late money will still arrive to keep North Carolina competitive. Early voting continues through Oct. 30 in both states, and both parties are bracing for a late swing as ballots keep arriving over the next seven days.