The 2022 midterm elections were the most expensive midterms in history. As of December 2022, Senate candidates alone reported raising $1.69 billion collectively. For comparison, Senate candidates raised $1.3 billion for the 2018 midterms and $870 million for the 2014 midterms, adjusted to 2022 dollars.
Four races were the most expensive this election cycle: Senate seats in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona. Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock, the two Georgia Senate Candidates, reported raising $234 million collectively as of mid-November 2022. In Pennsylvania, John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz raised $129 million, the second-highest combined figure among Senate races. Together, the eight candidates raised $589 million, 35% of all Senate fundraising. While some additional fundraising from the Georgia runoff election is yet to be reported, this figure accounts for all the fundraising through the November election.
Data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) shows that in these four races, the Democratic candidate consistently raised more money than the Republican candidate, with the widest gap in the Arizona race. Additionally, most of the money raised in all four races came from outside the state, meaning the primary donors to candidate committees would not be personally represented by the senators they donated to.
