The Kochs may not be thrilled with the top of the GOP ticket, but that won’t stop them from building a coalition to elect their political puppets down the ballot (and if that helps out Donald Trump along the way, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
According to The Hill, the Koch brothers and their political front groups have “already spent more than $24 million in Senate races and [made] advertising reservations for the fall totaling at least $42 million.” They’ve signaled their support for vulnerable Republicans in Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, among others, and plan to make a buy in North Carolina.
Take a look at how over the past couple of weeks the Koch network has invested in each state to insure the Senate and the House is full of people who will do the brothers’ bidding, even if it hurts the voters who elected them:
Florida
- It’s no secret that the Kochs are huge Marco Rubio fans, but their favor for the ever-absent senator became even clearer when AFP President Tim Phillips told Politico, “We care a lot about Marco Rubio.”
- Koch backed group, American Future Fund, already “spent $1.5 million on a 30-second cable TV ad” attacking Patrick Murphy.
Indiana
- Koch organization, Freedom Partners Action Fund “poured $1 million into negative advertising in the Indiana Senate race” shortly after Evan Bayh announced his candidacy.
- AFP spent more than $40,000 on staff salaries against Bayh in addition to paying for phone banking against him, according to their FEC report.
Nevada
- Most of the $12 million in outside spending for Congressman Joe Heck has come directly from the Koch network.
- Freedom Partners highlighted their recent $1.2 million ad buy attacking Cortez Masto in a blog post.
- American for Prosperity has spent roughly $18,500 on staffing, canvassing, campaign literature, and phone banking in Nevada as well.
Ohio- According to PolitiFact, the Kochs have spent more on the Ohio Senate race than any other race in the country.
- Last year, the Koch brothers put in $1.4 million to help Rob Portman.
- In their most recent FEC reports, AFP reported that they spent $10,000 on staffing, $5,000 on canvassing, and about $1,000 on phone banking against Rob Portman’s opponent, Ted Strickland.
Pennsylvania
- Freedom Partners spent $2 million on an ad attacking Katie McGinty and has already spent $5.5 million in Pennsylvania in support of Pat Toomey.
- AFP is helping campaign for Toomey and against his opponent McGinty through staffing and canvassing, according to their FEC report.
- Since the start of his career, Toomey has directly received $18,000 in donations from the Kochs, and in September of 2015, they’d already given him $7,500 for the 2016 cycle.
Wisconsin
- In Wisconsin, Freedom Partners spent more than $1 million to help re-electi vulnerable Senator Ron Johnson.
- AFP has also spent thousands on staffing and phone banking against Feingold.