If you’re not seeing nearly as many political campaign television advertisements, you can blame (or thank!) the lack of competitive congressional races in Minnesota. If a race isn’t competitive, it won’t attract much outside spending.

As recently as 2018, $46 million was spent by outside special interests on several competitive Minnesota races.

The figure dropped to $31.5 million in 2020, $24.5 million in 2022, and now, with just over two weeks until Election Day, only $2 million.

More than half the amount this year is a million dollars spent on behalf of incumbent Democrat Angie Craig in the 2^nd District, considered Minnesota’s most competitive. Only $25,272 has been spent in support of her Republican opponent, Joe Teirab.

“We’ve joined the rest of the country in having congressional districts that are very, very predetermined, if you will, in favor of the incumbents,” says Annette Meeks of the conservative Freedom Foundation. “Very few races, I think I saw somewhere about 27 races nationwide, are really competitive, and that’s where all the money flows.”

Former Minnesota DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez says there’s also a lack of quality candidates to challenge entrenched incumbents. “The challengers in both parties have not been really high profile people challenging the incumbents and so it’s less competitive,” he said in a segment recorded for At Issue with Tom Hauser.

Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar and Republican challenger Royce White is almost completely off the national radar. So far, outside interests have spent $69,377 in support of Klobuchar and zero dollars on behalf of White.

By comparison, Pennsylvania has a Senate race where more than $170 million in outside money has poured into that state.

You can see more analysis of outside spending on At Issue on Sunday morning at 10 a.m., and find all this data at opensecrets.org.