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As Election Day draws nearer, candidates and outside groups are courting Spanish-speaking voters amid an interesting and broader battle for Latino voters.
A recent NBC News/Telemundo poll of Latinos found that while Democrats lead Republicans by 21 points when they're asked which party they prefer to control Congress, that's a smaller gap than in past polls. The poll also found slightly greater leads for the Democrats among those who consumed Spanish-language news or a mix of English and Spanish-language news (as opposed to English alone), as well as those who preferred to take the interview in Spanish.
It's against that backdrop that there's been more than $25 million in Spanish-language ad spending in House and Senate races since Labor Day, per data from AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm.
Here's a look at the five congressional races drawing the most recent ad spending from Labor Day (including spending booked through Election Day):
Arizona Senate: $4.4 million
The top two congressional races for Spanish-language ad spending are no surprise -- they're they two Sun Belt races that have a significant chunk of Latinos as part of the electorate.
Arizona's Senate race, pitting Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly against Republican Blake Masters, narrowly edged out the Nevada Senate race.
Almost 90% of that spending has come from Democrats, with the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC spending $1.9 million, Kelly's campaign spending $1.2 million and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spending almost $800,000.
On the GOP side, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is spending $440,000, with an outside group called Citizens for Sanity pitching in another $180,000.
Nevada Senate: $4.3 million
Nevada's race, between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt, follows a similar trend on the Democratic side.
Senate Majority PAC is the top spender, with $1.9 million as well, with Cortez Masto's campaign behind at $546,000. The DSCC and several outside groups have pitched in too.
But the Spanish-language spending has been largely split on the GOP side, with more than $800,000 coming from the Club for Growth Action and $660,000 coming from the NRSC, with Laxalt's campaign pitching in about $82,000.
California-22: $3 million
The top House race on the list pits Republican Rep. David Valadao against Democrat Rudy Salas.
Democrats have spent almost $2 million to the GOP's $1 million, with spending split between party committees, top outside groups.
Texas-28: $1.7 million
Democrats have the edge here, with just under $1.1 million in Spanish language spending booked and spent since Labor Day.
Republicans have spent significantly, however, almost $600,000.
Texas-15: $1.5 million
This is the only race on the top 5 where Republicans are outspending Democrats on Spanish-language media. The GOP has $800,000 booked and spent, compared to $660,00 from Democrats.
Honorable mentions
Nevada-04, Texas-34 and California-13 were the other races with more than a million dollars in Spanish-language ad spending since Labor Day. (Florida's Senate race had more than $900,000 in spending).
