‘It’s kind of a perfect storm for there to be a lot of money’
Seven candidates — five Republicans and two Democrats — are running to replace Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican who set off the primary in January with the surprise announcement that he will not run for re-election. Here are some of the things the candidates have spent money on so far, most of which voters are unlikely to have noticed:
Vance entered the race well known in national political circles, due to his successful 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which positioned him as a sought-after speaker and became a Netflix film. But he was not particularly well-known in Ohio, since he has never run for office before. That’s where the $10 million comes in that Thiel gave his affiliated super PAC. The PAC, Protect Ohio Values, also got $150,000 from Rebekah and Robert Mercer. Like Thiel, the Mercers are billionaires known for funding right-wing, nationalist political causes. And Thiel is the largest Super PAC donor in the country for the 2022 election, according to Political Moneyline, having also given $10 million to Blake Masters, an executive at his venture capital firm running for Senate in Arizona on a similar platform as Vance.
Protect Ohio Values, which can raise unlimited money but is barred from coordinating with Vance, spent $1.76 million in the first half of 2021, before Vance officially got in the race, federal campaign finance records show. The PAC also sent a film crew to record Vance at a Republican Senate candidate forum in Versailles earlier this month. Protect Ohio Values paid about $562,800 to Ad Astra Insights LLC, a data modeling firm owned by Luke Thompson, a Maryland political operative running the PAC. Another $268,750 went to Fabrizio Lee, and Associates, a pollster used by former President Donald Trump’s campaign, for polling and focus group testing. Another $235,000 paid for digital advertising. Protect Ohio Values has spent $230,000 on advertising with Facebook and Google, transparency portals for both social media sites show. Vance’s campaign meanwhile has raised $1.7 million, including a $100,000 personal loan. His campaign has reported spending $393,700, much of it on staff and consulting. The PAC has $8.4 million still in the bank, as of its most recent disclosure, while Vance’s campaign has $846,000.
Gibbons, a Cleveland investment banker who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2018, is the race’s purest self-funder, with personal loans accounting for 92% of the money he’s raised for his campaigns, while drawing $660,000 from individual donors. He has spent more money ($4.63 million) than the rest of the candidates’ campaign committees combined ($3.6 million.) That’s largely due to his early decision to run extensive TV ads. In his most recent campaign-finance report, his largest expense by far was $2.97 million he paid in June to the Strategy Group, a prominent Republican political firm in Columbus, for TV ads. Before that, Gibbons had spent at least $1.72 million on printing, broadcast ads and general advertising, according to federal campaign finance records. Gibbons has announced plans to spend $10 million on TV ads before the May primary.
Moreno, a Cleveland luxury car dealer and entrepreneur, is the third self-funder in the race. He loaned himself $3 million, adding to the $2.8 million he’s raised from individual donors. Moreno has spent $1.2 million, including $235,500 paid to Ad Victory LLC in Michigan, a digital ad firm, and $101,000 to Tennessee-based 1892, LLC, Inc. for polling. Other major expenses including his campaign payroll and $38,200 paid to KA Consulting, a firm owned by KellyAnne Conway, former President Trump’s ex-campaign manager.
Mandel’s biggest financial advantage entering the race was the $4.3 million he pulled forward from his aborted Senate campaign in 2018. Since then, he’s added a net $1.5 million to his campaign bank account, much of which came from an affiliated PAC that jointly raises money with the Seneca County Republican Party. Mandel also enjoys the support of USA Freedom Fund, a Wisconsin-based, pro-Mandel Super PAC that was structured to obscure how it was funded. The group has disclosed raising $320,654, federal campaign records show, which it received from another Washington, D.C.-based Super PAC called Ohio Freedom Fund, which itself got most of its money from Invest in Ohio, a nonprofit organization that isn’t required to share its donors. Invest in Ohio was co-founded by Scott Guthrie in 2017, who now is Mandel’s campaign manager.
USA Freedom Fund has shown signs of serving as a campaign attack dog for Mandel. The group has disclosed spending around $173,000 on ads. That includes political mailers support Mandel and attacking Moreno, Timken and Vance, and TV ads in April that boosted Mandel while attacking the other candidates. It doesn’t include the $445,000 worth it has scheduled to air soon. The group also registered two websites attacking Timken and Vance, which the mailers promote.
Meanwhile, some of the Google spending from Protect Ohio Values, the pro-Vance Super PAC, promotes a “Truth About Vance” website that lists some of the pro-Trump statements Vance has made since becoming a Senate candidate. Mandel’s official campaign has spent $249,106.29, very little compared to the other campaigns, especially considering that one of its single largest expenditures is a $97,000 tax bill, paid in April.
Like Gibbons, Timken, a former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, has aired early TV ads to boost her campaign. Her campaign’s largest reported expense is TV ads and production, on which she has spent more than $787,000. Her latest ad, in which Timken touts her opposition to mask and vaccine mandates while promising to “Fire Fauci,” boosts that number to around $1.4 million
Also like Gibbons, Timken is self-funding her campaign, although not to the same degree. Part of the politically connected Timken family in Canton, she’s loaned herself $2 million. But she’s also raised $3.2 million in donations, including those from an affiliated campaign committee.
Since launching her Senate campaign on Aug. 18, Harper reported collecting almost $536,000 from more than 4,000 individual donors. She described it as a “grassroots campaign,” where 86% of donors gave $100 or less.
Her campaign finance report shows one political committee donation: $274 worth of SMS texting from the Progressive Campaign Change Committee.
Her campaign has spent around $122,000 so far. More than $66,000 went towards digital ads. She had $413,810 in campaign cash at the end of September.
Ryan, who is favored to win the Democratic nomination, has reported raising $5.6 million for his Senate campaign, of which around $285,000 came from political action committees. More than $1 million of his stash was transferred from his U.S. House of Representatives election campaign. Some of Ryan’s bigname donors include billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra, and former television host and Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer, who each gave Ryan $5,800. Ryan got $2,900 donations from financier George Soros, Donatos pizza founder Jim Grote and Meijer co-chairman Douglas F. Meijer. Screenwriter and director Cameron Crowe donated $1,000 and musician Jackson Browne gave him $400.
Democratic political figures who donated to Ryan’s campaign include former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and former Nebraska Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Kerry, who each gave $5,800. Former Health and Human Services Secretary and Florida congresswoman Donna Shalala contributed $3,400, former U.S. Rep. Ron Klink of Pennsylvania and former U.S. Rep. Zack Space of Dover each gave $2,000. Former Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and former U.S. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy of Columbus each gave $1,000. Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick donated $2,900, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland gave $2,500, and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell contributed $1,500.
Ryan’s campaign has spent around $2 million so far. Much of that money went towards digital consulting, fundraising consulting, and online advertising. His campaign ended September with more than $3.6 million in the bank.