Dem
50
GOP
50
How much does money help a political campaign? Not a tremendous amount, but not zero, either. To get a sense of what is going on with spending on House races, here's the breakdown for the 10 most expensive races, thus far, this cycle.
| Dist. | Held By | Dem Spending | Rep Spending | Differential |
| NY-19 | Marc Molinaro (R) | $18.6 million | $16.8 million | $1.8 million |
| MI-07 | Open (Elissa Slotkin, D) | $17.6 million | $15.2 million | $2.4 million |
| NC-01 | Don Davis (D) | $18.9 million | $12 million | $6.9 million |
| PA-08 | Matt Cartwright (D) | $16.9 million | $12.4 million | $4.5 million |
| PA-07 | Susan Wild (D) | $16.4 million | $12.9 million | $3.5 million |
| CO-08 | Yadira Caraveo (D) | $16.7 million | $9.4 million | $7.3 million |
| CA-27 | Mike Garcia (R) | $12.6 million | $12.6 million | $0 |
| ME-02 | Jared Golden (D) | $14 million | $11.2 million | $2.8 million |
| NY-17 | Mike Lawler (R) | $14 million | $11.1 million | $2.9 million |
| CA-47 | Open (Katie Porter, D) | $15.4 million | $8.9 million | $5.5 million |
As you can see, the Democrats are largely leaving the Republicans in the dust, sometimes by a huge margin, especially by the standards of a House race.
It is worth noting that seven of these ten seats are already held by Democrats, so much of this money is being spent playing defense. That said, defending existing seats is a big part of taking over the House. Further, the Democrats are also outpacing the Republicans in two of the three Republican-held seats. Oh, and on top that, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) has a new headache to deal with, as of yesterday (keep reading). (Z)