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Outside groups have poured nearly $2 billion into this election cycle with weeks of spending still to come, and a small cluster of groups is responsible for a growing share of that money.

The top six outside groups — the Senate Leadership Fund, Texas PAC, No Going Back PAC, WinSenate PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund and Americans for Prosperity Action — spent more than $60 million apiece as of Oct. 5, according to federal disclosure reports analyzed by OpenSecrets.

Together, they accounted for more than $678 million — or more than a third of the outside spending by 794 groups tracked by OpenSecrets, and a sum nearly equal to the combined spending of the next 34 groups. Just 16 organizations account for more than half of all outside spending during the current cycle.

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Each of those groups serves a distinct purpose. For example, the Senate Leadership Fund works to elect Republicans to the Senate while the Congressional Leadership Fund does the same for the GOP’s House candidates and WinSenate PAC supports Democrats running for Senate seats. Texas PAC is a new SLF-linked organization created to back Ken Paxton, that state’s Republican Senate nominee. Americans for Prosperity Action is among the organizations backed by conservative billionaire Charles Koch. Another new group — the President Donald Trump-linked and MAGA Inc.-funded No Going Back PAC — spends to oppose Democrats in battleground races.

The money they’re pouring into races is becoming even more concentrated. As recently as Sept. 21, the top six groups accounted for 28% of all spending and 20 of them made up nearly half of all outside spending. That concentration still falls short of 2022, when the top six outside groups accounted for 45% of all outside spending tracked through that year’s election.

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That concentration of spending isn’t new, California State University, Chico political science professor Diana Dwyre said.

“There are big spenders, and there aren’t that many of them, and I think that’s been a trend since” the advent of super PACs, Dwyre told OpenSecrets.

The modern outside spending landscape traces its roots to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC. That 2010 ruling opened the door for corporations, unions, nonprofits and PACs to spend unlimited amounts on elections as long as that spending remains independent of the campaigns they support. That, combined with a separate lawsuit against the FEC, paved the way for super PACs.

Sixteen years later, super PACs remain the dominant outside-spending vehicle. Formally known as independent........

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