Arabic version: مراسلو الغارديان يجيبون عن أسئلة تمويل الانتخابات النصفية

According to The Guardian, reporters Joseph Gedeon, Dara Kerr and Chris Stein are taking reader questions about campaign funding and its role before the 3 November US midterm elections.

Stein said Super PACs can spend on advertisements across television, streaming services and websites, as well as campaign signs, bumper stickers, canvassing and phone banking. He said the effect of that spending varies by race.

He cited the United Democracy Project, a Super PAC connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It spent heavily for Democratic congressman Wesley Bell in his St Louis, Missouri, primary against Cori Bush, whom Bell unseated with the group’s assistance in 2024. Bell won the primary by a wide margin, though Stein said Bush faced issues beyond a lack of funds.

In Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, the same group spent heavily to support congresswoman Haley Stevens against Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed won the nomination, although by a narrower margin than expected.

Kerr said California’s proposed Prop 40, which would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires living in the state, could become the state’s most expensive ballot-measure race. Building a Better California, a tech-backed Super PAC opposing the proposal, had raised $229m since launching in February. Polling showed voters leaning toward support, though that support had weakened in recent weeks.

Stein also said the Save America Act had passed the House of Representatives but not the Senate, meaning its provisions would not be implemented for the November midterms. He said an attempt by Donald Trump’s administration to impose new mail-in voting restrictions by executive order was halted by the supreme court.