* The Sun-Times late last month…

Gov. JB Pritzker’s Ready for the Fight PAC is sending $1.5 million to help Democrats win the Senate in Mississippi and Kansas — part of more than $40 million in spending the billionaire governor is doling out in the midterm elections and to Democratic causes to try to boost anti-Trump candidates and help Democrats win the House and Senate. […]

The PAC said it’s investing in races that “national Democrats have historically overlooked.” The latest spends follow the PAC’s advertising efforts targeting MAGA Republicans across the country, including House races in Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, New Mexico and Ohio.

* Democrats won 12 of the 14 races where Pritzker’s PAC got involved, according to a spokesperson. That includes three US Senate races in states Trump won by double digits two years ago. The latest win came Wednesday. AP…

It’s been nearly 150 years since a Black man has represented Deep South and deep red Mississippi in the U.S. Senate.

That changed Wednesday evening as Democrat Scott Colom was declared the winner over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump. For many in the state and for Black Americans across the nation, Colom’s victory reflects the ambitions that were thwarted by generations of systemic oppression and violence.

* CNN…

In the final stretch, as Obama cut an ad for Colom, other Democrats started to pay attention. With some urging to do an end run around consultants who worried about nationalizing the race, Harris called Colom to offer to come campaign, and he accepted. […]

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg soon followed. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez connected with Colom in early October, and though they had a good conversation, people familiar with the call told CNN that a combination of her campaign schedule taking her elsewhere and some concerns about how a joint appearance would play for each of them kept her from coming. The progressive congresswoman did, however, write a $3,500 check to his campaign from her own account — the maximum allowed — and sent a fundraising email for him to raise more.

Then Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another potential 2028 presidential candidate who spent tens of millions of his own fortune on behalf of candidates across the country, jumped in with a previously undisclosed $1.4 million on two TV ads and additional $200,000 in calls and texts targeting Black voters, according to a person involved with the placement.

One Pritzker-funded PAC ad showed flies buzzing around cow dung and then around Hyde-Smith, highlighting possibly Hyde-Smith’s most infamous blunder: telling those concerned about the price of beef to “pick another protein.”

Pritzker’s PAC spent $1,386,000 total in Mississippi, including $1,186,000 for the two TV ads and $200,000 for get-out-the-vote calls and texts targeting Black voters.

Click here for that second tv ad.

In Kansas, which Trump won by 16 points two years ago, the PAC spent $508,500 on digital ads against Republican US Sen. Roger Marshall. Democrat Adam Hamilton won.

The PAC put another $244,000 into calls and texts targeting Black voters in South Carolina, where Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Republican Darlene Graham. Trump won that state by nearly 18 points.

The PAC also helped Democrats win Nevada’s governor’s race and eight US House contests: SC-01, TX-23, OH-07, AL-02, NH-01, MI-10, VA-01 and NM-02.

The two losses were close. Democrats fell short by 1.8 points in Arkansas’ 2nd District and 1.1 points in Tennessee’s 9th.