The super PAC spending flooding the primaries
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
Primary season for the 2026 midterm elections is underway. And the money from super PACs is already flowing. But how well is it working? On today’s show, Kimberly talks with democratic strategist Tim Lim about how spending from outside groups is shaping this year’s races so far and why strategists are waiting on the outcome of an under-the-radar Supreme Court case that could loosen the rules on how parties can coordinate with candidates.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- "MAGA Inc.’s $300 Million War Chest Waits for Go-Ahead From Trump" from Bloomberg
- "Super PAC spending passes $200M, with some groups hiding their cause" from The Washington Post
- "Big-spending Democratic PACs see mixed results in Illinois" from Semafor
- "This Supreme Court decision could upend millions in political spending ahead of the midterms. Here’s how the parties are preparing." from Politico
- "Pivotal U.S. Supreme Court Case Could Further Reshape Federal Campaign Finance Law" from Bernstein Shur
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Transcript
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| 0:39.6 | built for the way you work at Dell.com slash XPS. Built for you. Hello everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. |
| 0:58.3 | Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. |
| 1:02.3 | Primary season for the 26 midterm elections is well underway with votes to winnowdown party candidates already held in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Illinois. |
| 1:15.1 | There's another wave of elections coming up in May, with other states mostly in June and August. |
| 1:20.9 | So today, we're taking a look at the money that's shaping the races so far, and what those inside the world of campaign finance and campaigns |
| 1:29.1 | in general are watching as the midterms get closer. So here to make us smart about this is |
| 1:34.3 | Democratic strategist Tim Lim, president of Lim Consulting Services. Tim, welcome to the show. |
| 1:40.8 | Thanks for having me. So Tim, you and I have spoken about campaign strategies and money in politics several times over the years. |
| 1:49.0 | What's different about this cycle? |
| 1:51.0 | There's so many things, but I think the big storyline and what's getting the most coverage is the growth of super PAC spending in primaries and in politics in general. |
| 2:04.1 | I think that we're on pace this year to have more outside spending happen than actual coordinated or campaign spending happen. |
| 2:14.7 | Remind folks the difference between PACs and super PACs why it matters and how that does differ from the money that the campaigns are spending. |
| 2:22.4 | Sure. So you have campaign spending, which is money raised through federal or state committees that are regulated by bodies such as the federal elections commissions or state elections |
| 2:36.5 | commissions within the particular state, those have contribution caps, those have limits on how |
| 2:43.0 | much can be given, who can give, and also how coordinated you can have the spending between |
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