Since the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down federal caps on political party spending with input from candidates, Republican committees have surged past the former limits by more than $126 million while their Democratic counterparts have topped them by more than $46 million ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, Reuters reported on October 21.

Source: Reuters

Republican and Democratic committees supporting candidates in House and Senate races disclosed their coordinated spending totals for September in filings on Tuesday night to the Federal Election Commission, Reuters reported. In July, August and September — the three months since the court's ruling — the Republican committees poured a total of about $137 million of coordinated spending into House and Senate races across the country, according to their filings, while their Democratic counterparts spent a total of around $55 million.

Source: Federal Election Commission filings (as reported by Reuters)

President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans are seeking to retain control of Congress in the midterms, Reuters reported. Coordinated spending by both parties from July through September was nearly eight times what they spent during the same months of the last midterm elections in 2022.

Source: Reuters

Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court's three liberals, in remarks on Tuesday criticized its conservative majority for failing to appreciate the real-world impact of striking down coordinated spending limits, Reuters reported. “The people of America look around this political system and think that all this money, chasing all these political candidates, is a nightmare, and they're right,” Kagan told an audience at Catholic University's law school in Washington, according to Reuters.

Source: Reuters