$34 million in independent expenditures in the Hamilton-Marshall US Senate contest in Kansas (so far)

Independent spending for Hamilton is about $4 million more than spending for Marshall

OCT 18, 2026

The tight US Senate race is creating huge Super PAC spending many Kansans have not seen before.

Many TV ads, streaming ads, mailers, text messages, and online ads are created by independent groups and not the candidates. So be skeptical about information in ads from unknown groups, especially if the claims are difficult to verify.

When you see political ads always look for who is paying for them.

Try to do your own research to make decisions. Good sources of information about political groups include Influence Watch and Ballotpedia.

FEC Super PACs

Super PACs are powerful outside spending machines that can raise huge sums for political ads and messaging, as long as they stay independent of the candidates themselves.

But finding most donors to Super PACs with certainty will almost certainly not happen. The system seems to be designed for obfuscation.

The table below shows the names and amounts spent by Super PACs on the US Senate race in Kansas.

Kansas US Senate Super PAC scoreboard

This table shows money reported as “independent expenditures” by outside groups in the general election through FEC reports available Saturday evening:

to support Adam Hamilton and/or oppose Roger Marshall: $19 million.
to support Roger Marshall and/or oppose Adam Hamilton: $15 million.

This table represents actual government reports about independent expenditures. Estimates about possible spending based on ad trackers can be significantly larger.

Free speech

Super PACs became possible after two 2010 court decisions (Citizens United v. FEC and SpeechNow.org v. FEC) that treated independent political spending as protected free speech.

Often it’s nearly impossible to find the ultimate source of much of the Super PAC money. Both sides use Super PAC dark money even when they say they want to get money out of politics.

Daily evening posts about Super PACs

I research FEC independent expenditures every evening. Most of the daily discoveries about independent expenditures are better suited for short postings on X instead of longer articles here on substack. So, follow me on X @EarlGlynn for these reports about Super PACs until the election.

Updated FEC electronic files are available after 7 PM CT, which is when I start my analysis and post on X what I find.