PACs spent millions to sway voters in competitive Kentucky House and legislative seats

In an unusually expensive race in a Central Kentucky U.S. House District, a Democratic PAC, Kentuckians Not Corruption, spent millions in cash on ads supporting now Congressman-elect Zach Dembo as a way to offset spending by President Donald Trump’s political arm. 

By the general election, independent expenditures from PACs, or political action committees, ballooned to just over $14 million in the 6th Congressional District, federal finance records showed last week. The PAC spending in the 6th dwarfed all other general elections in Kentucky this cycle.

Kentuckians Not Corruption had about $2.3 million in expenditures. Of that, $1.5 million was spent against Alvarado and about $750,000 in favor of Dembo. The PAC was officially formed in mid-August. 

In favor of the ultimate winner Dembo, PACs in total spent about $1.4 million on ads supporting him and $3.8 million on ads opposing him. For Alvarado, PACs spent $3.8 million on ads backing him and $4.5 million on ads to oppose him. 

Kelsey Coots, a general consultant with Blue Dot Consulting which worked with KNC, told the Kentucky Lantern the PAC came together as a way to counter Republicans’ resources in the district. 

“Zach was an outsider. He’d never been an elected official, and so he was going to be spending all the time introducing himself. And we had a feeling that, of course, the Republican side, specifically Trump’s No Going Back PAC would be in the fight, and so we had a conversation about how we could support the Democratic side in the race,” Coots said. 

PACs that backed Alvarado included No Going Back, which is connected to Trump’s political team and spent more than $5 million in the 6th Congressional District. Of that $2.5 million was in support of Alvarado and $2.5 million against Dembo. 

PACs cannot coordinate with candidates on election messaging, but Coots said PACs can strategize messaging by paying attention to what campaigns and other PACs are doing. Other pro-Dembo PACs involved in the 6th included Gov. Andy Beshear’s In This Together and the House Majority PAC, which supported electing Democrats to flip control of Congress. Coots said polling showed corruption in politics and affordability were top concerns of voters this cycle. The Republican side of PACs “did not have an answer to that” which moved voters this time, she added. 

“(PACs) can be messengers for things that maybe a candidate wouldn’t say. In our instance, we wanted to talk about corruption. We know that that is the issue that’s number one on Kentuckians’ minds, and there was a lot to talk about in that 6th Congressional District race.”

Days ahead of the election, PACs began pushing ads about third-party candidates in the race. No Going Back spent more than $50,000 on mailers and texts opposing Independent Jay Bowman and the Kentucky Party’s Pete Lynch. 

A mysterious group that suddenly popped up in October, Our Heritage Matters, spent nearly $220,000 between Oct. 21 and Nov. 3 propping up Bowman. The New York Times reported the group also spent money on ads in favor of third-party candidates who were seen as spoilers for Republicans in states like Colorado and North Carolina. 

As for the general contests in Kentucky’s other five congressional districts this year, a PAC called Save America Freedom spent about $35,000 supporting Republican Congressman-elect Ed Gallrein in the 4th District and a Planned Parenthood Alliance PAC spent $2,600 in support of Democratic U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey in the 3rd Congressional District. 

Legislative races

According to state campaign finance records, PACs spent more than $1.8 million on General Assembly races ahead of the November election. About $1.1 million in ads supported and opposed 46 House candidates and nearly $650,000 on six Senate candidates, with a chunk of that going to suburban Lexington and Louisville districts. 

The biggest spender on statehouse races was the Commonwealth Conservative Coalition, with about $876,000, or about 48% of all legislative PAC spending. 

The group spent about $800,000 opposing House Democratic candidates. In Jefferson County races, that includes more than $186,000 against Suhas Kulkarni, who defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Ken Fleming in the 48th House District and more than $250,000 against Tim Hall, who defeated Republican Rep. Susan Tyler Witten in the 31st House District. 

The coalition also spent $96,000 against Democratic Rep. Adam Moore, who ended up defending his seat in the 45th House District in Central Kentucky against former Republican state Rep. Killian Timoney. 

In the week before the election, the Commonwealth Conservative Coalition spent $35,000 backing Republican House Whip Jason Nemes and about $9,500 supporting Rep. Daniel Fister, of Versailles. Fister won reelection Tuesday, but Nemes lost to Democrat Jennifer Hardin. 

For the Senate, the Commonwealth Conservative Coalition spent nearly $74,000 opposing Sarah Sarah Cole McIntosh, who ended up defeating Republican Sen. Julie Raque Adams in the 36th Senate District in Jefferson County. 

Americans for Prosperity spent more than $130,000 supporting Republican House candidates and more than $67,000 in favor of Raque Adams. 

Raque Adams also had more than $188,000 in support from GOPAC. The Kentucky Chamber Advocacy Committee spent nearly $46,000 on support for Republican Senate candidates, including Raque Adams, and nearly $87,000 backing Republican House candidates. 

The Republican State Leadership Committee spent about $154,000 on the 36th Senate District race. 

National Association of Realtors Fund spent more than $65,000 on Raque Adams and $30,000 supporting Witten. 

NRA Political Victory Fund spent $1,120 on Republican House candidates and $1,110 supporting Sen. Lindsey Tichenor in the 6th Senate District, who later lost to Democrat Christan Furman. 

Planned Parenthood Action Kentucky spent about $26,000 supporting Democrats and opposing Republican candidates in the House. The group also spent nearly $300 supporting Democratic Sen. Karen Berg in the 26th Senate District in Jefferson county. 

Protect Freedom PAC spent about $91,000 supporting Tanner Hesterberg and Marianne Proctor in the House and more than $45,000 supporting Tichenor. 

Yellowbanks Political Action Committee spent nearly $3,400 supporting Democrats in the House and $1,100 for Vicki Quisenberry against Republican Sen. Gary Boswell, of Owensboro, in the 8th Senate District.