Billionaires plunked down more than $82 million to support dozens of GOP Senate candidates, including sizable investments in some of the closest races in the country, a USA TODAY analysis of data provided by OpenSecrets found. In Georgia, Senate candidate Herschel Walker collected checks from about 40 billionaires, according to reports filed through September. In Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson banked contributions from 33. In Alaska, Sen. Lisa Murkowski got backing from 61 billionaires. The money overwhelmingly flowed across state lines. All of Murkowski’s haul came from outside Alaska. J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona each got checks from about a dozen billionaires – none of them from Ohio or Arizona. Democrats also amassed billionaire money, but mostly through party committees and outside groups not affiliated with individual candidates, making their impact more difficult to track. To read more about which candidates have garnered the most money from billionaire backers, visit USATODAY.com #2022midterms #elections #democrats #republicans