Georgia Senate race tops a $470 million August of ad spending

Political campaigns and groups combined to spend almost $470 million on TV ads in August alone — $149 million on Senate races, $117 million on gubernatorial races, $71 million on House races and $133 million on down-ballot races.

That's an uptick from the $410 million spent on political ads in July, a month featuring few primaries. But it's also an increase from June, a month with a handful of key primaries, when groups combined to spend $419 million.

Here's a look at the top five races in ad spending for August, per the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Democrats had a narrow edge in ad spending in the race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker — $12.9 million for the Democratic effort at-large and $11.5 million for the Republicans.

Warnock's campaign spent $7.2 million on ads over this period, compared to Walker's $2 million. But the GOP non-profit One Nation outspent everyone else with $6.9 million, largely on ads attacking Warnock on the economy.

This is another race where Democrats had a slight edge — $12 million in the effort backing Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes compared to $10.7 million for the effort to boost Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.

And the race's spending has a similar dynamic to what we see in Georgia — Barnes outspent all other advertisers in the race in August, but a pair of GOP outside groups were the second and third biggest spenders.

The Democrats have massively outspent Republicans in the race between Sen. Mark Kelly and Republican Blake Masters — $16.3 million for team blue, and $5 million for the red team.

That's thanks in no small part to Kelly's largess — one of the best fundraisers in the Senate, he spent $8.2 million on ads in August, more than the entire GOP effort combined.

And the GOP cavalry doesn't appear to be coming just yet, as a top GOP outside group slashed its September spending there for other priorities.

One other interesting note — while Masters got a big boost in the primary from a super PAC funded primarily by billionaire Peter Thiel (who Masters has worked for), that group has spent nothing on ads since the Aug. 2 primary.

Here's one race where Republicans are flexing their big cash advantage thanks to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' massive war chest — Republicans outspent Democrats in August $11.6 million to $7.4 million.

Of course, most of that Democratic spending came in the competitive Democratic primary, where losing candidate Nikki Fried, the agriculture commissioner, spent about $3 million. Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who won the primary, spent about $4.2 million.

This heated race was split virtually evenly in August spending — $9.5 million for Democrats and $9 million for Republicans

Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's campaign spent $3.9 million on ads as he is recovering from his stroke and is slowly returning to the campaign trail, while Republican Mehmet Oz's campaign spent about $900,000, with another $3.3 million in a joint buy with the National Republican Senatorial Committee.