Senate Democrats have taken out a $15 million loan to finance their final midterm push as Republican-aligned groups benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in outside spending, much of it supplied by billionaire Elon Musk.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee obtained the loan earlier this month, according to a Federal Election Commission report filed Thursday, as Democrats pour money into an expanded map of Senate races ahead of the November 3 election.
The DSCC spent approximately $32 million during the first two weeks of October alone, with roughly half going toward coordinated expenditures supporting Democratic candidates in 10 states. The largest share went to Ohio, where Democrats are trying to elect former Sen. Sherrod Brown against Republican Sen. Jon Husted, with approximately $4.7 million in coordinated DSCC spending.
The committee also spent more than $1 million apiece in Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Alaska and Maine, while additional money flowed into Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and New Hampshire. Despite that aggressive spending, the DSCC reported slightly more than $20 million in cash on hand as of October 14, making the new borrowing an important source of additional money during the final weeks.
Taking on debt late in a campaign is not unprecedented, however, and Republicans have also borrowed money to finance their Senate operation. The National Republican Senatorial Committee took out approximately $20 million in loans in September, while the DSCC similarly borrowed $20 million during the closing stretch of the 2024 election.
Democrats have also enjoyed a significant fundraising advantage at the individual-candidate level, with Democratic or independent candidates outraising their Republican opponents in 27 of the 35 Senate races during the third quarter.
In 13 of the most competitive Senate contests, Democratic or independent candidates collectively raised nearly five times as much as their Republican opponents from July through September. Republicans, however, have a major advantage from outside organizations and wealthy donors, with Musk emerging as the largest known individual political donor of the 2026 midterms.
Musk has spent roughly $366 million during the 2025-26 election cycle, including at least $276 million contributed to Republican organizations and his own super PAC since July.
His biggest contribution was $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, the principal super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidates, while another $20 million went to the Congressional Leadership Fund supporting House Republicans.
Musk also directed tens of millions of dollars into America PAC, the organization he founded during the 2024 presidential campaign and revived for a major Republican voter-turnout operation this year.
America PAC spent approximately $76.7 million during the third quarter, including $35.8 million on a field operation aimed at turning out Republican voters across seven major Senate battleground states and numerous House districts.
The organization has participated in 40 races across 17 states since July, with particularly heavy spending in Texas, Ohio and Michigan.
Musk has also contributed $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, which supports Republican Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, along with $10 million to the Republican Governors Association and $2 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association.
Republican-aligned organizations overall had approximately $683 million in cash on hand compared with about $484 million for Democratic-aligned groups, according to figures cited by the Financial Times, while including additional Trump-aligned organizations pushes the broader Republican total substantially higher.
Those outside resources have helped Republicans counter Democrats’ candidate-level fundraising advantage, although campaign committees and candidates can often purchase television advertising at lower rates than super PACs.
DSCC spokesperson Maeve Coyle said Democrats were using the loan because Republican megadonors were heavily financing competitive races and insisted the party would continue using every available resource during the closing stretch. Democrats have megadonors too, or they used to (throughout Silicon Valley) but for some reason, they’ve elected to keep their money this time around. Democrat crazy, perhaps?
