What TV ads reveal about the midterms

Democrats are pressing their advantage in the final days before the midterms, and you can see it happening during seemingly every TV commercial break if you live in a battleground state.

“Following the money suggests that the Senate battleground has been changing over these past two weeks, moving away from bluer states like Georgia and North Carolina and into redder territory,” says Travis Ridout, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political advertising.

Ridout’s team has seen a big influx in ad spending tied to Senate races in Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina. In Kansas, spending nearly tripled between early October and late October, with 58% of the later spending supporting the Democrat, Adam Hamilton.

As I reported on “CNN News Central” this morning, the top five overall states for Senate race ad spending are Ohio, Texas, Michigan, Iowa and Maine.

“In Ohio and Texas, the combination of competitive Senate and gubernatorial campaigns means that in just the last two weeks, voters in Ohio have seen over $150 million in ads across the two races, and in Texas the total across the Senate and governor races is about $130 million,” according to Wesleyan.

Stations in markets like Houston and Columbus are absolutely saturated with ads.

Overall, Wesleyan says, campaign ad spending has surpassed $7 billion in this cycle to date. And that total is just for House, Senate and gubernatorial races. The total is even higher when other races and referendums are factored in.