It was a tough year for Republicans in Minnesota, and that wasn’t something money could fix. Despite attempts to localize House races, the November midterm election was largely a referendum on President Donald Trump, mostly adjudicated in the Twin Cities suburbs.

DFLers’ success in the suburbs propelled them to victories in the competitive governor’s race, attorney general’s race and in the race for the Minnesota House of Representatives.

But how money was spent shows that GOP groups were doing what they could to make a bad situation better. According to year-end reports filed last week with the state Campaign Finance Board, Democrat-affiliated groups spent heavily in the governor’s race, while Republican groups appeared to devote their resources in an attempt to hold the House.

Those spending patterns were established after the August primary and continued through the end of the campaign.

All-told, Democratic outside groups outspent Republican groups by nearly five-to-one in the governor’s race, while Republicans outspent Democrats by nearly 50 percent on House races. (An important caveat: The Minnesota Jobs Coalition, a major Republican-affiliated spending group, had not filed its report by last week’s deadline and is not included in the data.) The flow toward House races by GOP-leaning groups began once Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson surprised everyone except perhaps himself in defeating former Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the Republican primary for governor.

The spending map

Outside spending is money spent to influence elections by groups outside the candidate’s campaign, including party-affiliated groups.They are banned from coordinating with the campaigns, but they’re run by political veterans who know the ropes.

(That spending is separate from money donated directly to campaigns and spent by the candidates, and usually amounts to far greater than candidates spend. In direct spending, Democratic nominee for governor Tim Walz raised $4.6 million, including a public subsidy of $480,333, and spent $4.6 million. Johnson raised $2.7 million with a subsidy total of $361,259. Johnson spent $2.7 million.)

The pattern of fleeing the governor’s race and trying instead to hold on to the GOP majority in the House was so well established that even Pawlenty himself followed it. His year-end report showed that he distributed money he raised for a general election he wasn’t going to be part of mostly toward legislative races.

Pawlenty made token donations to three of his party’s nominees for statewide office: $15,000 to Johnson, $5,000 to attorney general nominee Doug Wardlow and $1,000 to state auditor nominee Pam Myhra. But his biggest check — $70,000 — went to a political committee that spent much of its money attacking House DFL candidates. The Minnesota Jobs Coalition had already spent $710,000 through October 22. While it has not yet filed its year-end report, DFL candidates continued to suffer attack mailings from the coalition.

Pawlenty gave another $20,000 to the House Republican Campaign Committee and made individual contributions of $1,000 each to 18 House GOP candidates and 11 Republican Senate candidates who won’t be on the ballot until 2020.

To that end, Pawlenty made his final donation in a way that shows his campaign is aware of the stakes next election, giving $5,000 to Sen. Paul Anderson of Plymouth who is considered the most-vulnerable Republican in 2020.

And where is his district? In the same suburbs that provided the DFL with its winning majority last election.

Where else did Minnesota’s big spenders put their money?

The attorney general race

The spending differential in the attorney general’s race was even more stark than the governor’s. Groups seeking to help elect DFLer Keith Ellison spent nearly $2 million, or more than 12 times the $162,000 spent to help elect Republican Doug Wardlow.

Almost all of the outside money spent to help Ellison came from the DFL State Central Committee, listed as having spent nearly $1.9 million, largely on TV, radio and digital ads against Wardlow.

Where spending by candidates is concerned, eventual winner Ellison raised $1.148 million and spent 1.105 million. His subsidy was $96,067. GOP-nominee Wardlow nearly matched Ellison’s totals, raising $949,203, spending $937,614 and receiving $72,252 in public subsidy.

The Minnesota House

Groups supporting Republican candidates for the Minnesota House spent at least $1.5 million more than their DFL-aligned counterparts. It wasn’t enough for Republicans to hold the House. Despite the spending differential, Democrats picked up 18 seats to take the majority.

In the battle for control of the House, the Twin Cities suburbs saw the lion’s share of spending.

The most expensive House race was for 44A, the suburban Plymouth seat that saw DFLer Ginny Klevorn unseat Sarah Anderson, a longtime state rep who had withstood tough elections for Republicans in the past.

Outside groups spent more than half a million in the race: $304,000 to help Anderson  and $255,000 to help Klevorn.

Not far behind and with similar dynamics was the race in 56B between Republican incumbent Roz Peterson and DFLer Alice Mann. Outside groups spent $305,000 to help Peterson and $204,000 to help Mann.

Eight other suburban districts round out the top 10 spending in terms of outside money.

The Senate special

Democrats outspent Republicans by two-to-one in the high-stakes Election Day special election in Senate District 13. The seat was vacated by Michelle Fischbach when she became lieutenant governor, leaving each party with 33 members in the Senate. Republican Jeff Howe won big there, leading DFLer Joe Perske by a 15-point margin, keeping the Senate in Republican hands.

The big spenders

As is often the case, the DFL-allied Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund was the biggest source of independent expenditures in the election, with nearly $8.5 million spent across races.

Democrats, who typically funnel a larger share of outside spending though party-affiliated committees, spent considerable amounts through its DFL State Central Committee and other party-aligned groups.

Minnesota’s Republican Party relies less on party-affiliated groups (though its House Republican Campaign Committee was one of the big spenders this time around), and more on non-party-affiliated outside spending groups, such as the Minnesota Jobs Coalition (again, yet to file its year-end report), and the Freedom Club State PAC.