From Tammy Baldwin to Lauren Boebert, Congress members just brought home the dough

Last week, Ohio Republican voters nominated Bernie Moreno to run against Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. As Ohio has moved from being a swing state to a solidly pro-Donald Trump Republican outpost in the Midwest, Brown remains the only statewide elected Democrat there.

Democrats will need to spend mountains of cash to help his campaign in a state Trump won twice. But Brown has also received some additional help in the form of the two spending bills that passed this month, thanks to “earmarks”.

Earmarks are the part of the appropriations process that allow for members to request spending for specific projects in their home state or district. For many years, Congress included earmarks as a way to get members onboard must-pass legislation such as spending bills. A little money toward a pet project can soften the blow of a bill someone does not like — and it gives members something to point to when they face re-election.

After the 2008 financial crisis, earmarks — or, as they are formally known, congressionally directed spending — gained a bad reputation. Sarah Palin famously said “thanks but no thanks” to the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” her Republican congressman pushed to include. And when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2011, they banned earmarks entirely.

But when Democrats took control of both chambers in 2021, earmarks returned. They may help some Senators in tough races say they actually got something done in their home state. In Brown’s case, he can point $15.2m he received in the spending bill, which included $1.32m for the Big Walnut Joint Fire District Fire Station in Marengo, Ohio. He and Republican Representative Mike Turner also brought home $2m for a research center at the