Senate Race Ads Exceed $500M

The Ohio U.S. Senate race passed the $500 million mark in advertising spending this week.

Ad tracking site AdImpact reported on Oct. 27 that total costs, including future reservations, topped half a billion dollars.

This figure makes the contest one of the most expensive in the nation.

Candidates are focusing their spending on health care, a sector where Ohioans face rising costs.

Private health insurance premiums in Ohio are expected to increase by more than 10%, according to healthinsurance.org.

Affordable Care Act marketplace plans saw an average premium jump of 18% this year, per the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.

Enrollment in those ACA marketplace plans dropped by more than 161,000 people in February 2026 compared to the same month a year earlier.

That decline represents a 32.4% drop following the expiration of enhanced federal subsidies at the end of 2025.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Husted and his Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown, are trading blame for these trends.

A No Going Back PAC ad aired in October claims Brown received $240,000 from big insurance companies.

The ad calls Brown a shill for the industry, stating he gives them billions in exchange for their support.

Brown responded in August with a video on his Facebook page attacking Husted’s voting record and finances. "Jon Husted voted not once, not twice, nine times against lowering health insurance premiums," Brown said in the clip. "He's taking $700,000 from the same insurance companies that are jacking up premiums in Ohio." Brown has said 490,000 Ohioans will lose health care coverage over the next decade due to the end of ACA subsidies and Medicaid changes. "People who have lost their health insurance because of Jon Husted’s vote could fill Ohio Stadium almost five times over," Brown said in an interview. Husted countered in December that Brown’s votes during his time in the Senate caused the current problems. "I want Ohioans to know I'm trying to fix his his mistakes," Husted said in an interview. Husted said he is working across party lines to renew the premium tax credit and eliminate fraud. "I think the American taxpayers are tired of the fraud that goes on in the health care system, and particularly for working people," Husted added. Prescription drug prices are another point of contention in the campaign. Brown told a crowd in Steubenville in August that he wants to cap prescription drug prices similarly to how insulin prices were capped for Medicare recipients. "We should have the government do it the way we do it at the VA; negotiate drug prices," Brown said. "You shouldn't pay more for a pill here than you pay in Canada." Husted sponsored a bill aimed at allowing more prescription drugs to be sold over the counter to lower prices. He also cited the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, as a tool to cut costs through anti-fraud measures. "It's estimated that will save billions and billions of dollars when we do that," Husted said regarding eligibility checks required by the act. More than three million Ohioans currently receive Medicaid benefits. Advocates say changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill could remove more than half a million Ohioans from those rolls. Husted has praised the economic benefits of the legislation, while Brown has cited his opposition to it as a reason for running for the Senate again.