LEWISTON — If you thought you were seeing an awful lot of advertisements touting or trashing congressional candidates in Maine’s hotly contested 2nd District, you weren’t just imagining it.

One October commercial from Jared Golden’s campaign featured him tooling around Washington, D.C. with Mainers who said he’d helped them with issues involving the federal government. Jared Golden campaign photo

A tally of campaign spending in the district shows that more than $50 million poured into the contest between three-term incumbent Democrat Jared Golden of Lewiston and Republican challenger Austin Theriault of Fort Kent. Most of the  money came from outside groups, not the candidates’ campaign committees.

It is likely that only one other race in the country cost more.

In the end, a razor-thin margin separated the two men, with the outcome dependent on the Secretary of State’s Office ranked-choice runoff ballot count this week. Golden, though, has already claimed victory with a slight lead.

Spending on ads alone in the district totaled more than $40.5 million by Election Day, according to AdImpact, which tracks TV, digital and streaming devices to keep tabs on millions of campaign ads nationwide.

Of that, $22.4 million was spent for Golden or against Theriault while $18.1 million went to try to boost the GOP contender.

Since Maine’s advertising market is among the cheapest in the nation, that money translated into a barrage of commercials that made it almost impossible for anyone watching television, listening to the radio or surfing the web to avoid them.

In addition to the advertising cash, the two campaigns raised plenty of money on their own to pay for everything from polling to pizza.

Golden’s campaign raised $7.1 million through mid-October while Theriault hauled in $3.2 million during the same period. They each raised thousands of dollars more in the weeks that followed, but tallying it is difficult.

The costliest race in the country took place in New York’s 19th District, according to AdImpact, where Democratic challenger Josh Riley knocked out Republican incumbent Marc Molinaro in a rematch of another tight race in 2022.

In that contest, advertising alone cost $47 million through Election Day, according to AdImpact. The largely rural district stretches from Ithaca to the Massachusetts border.

Among the other expensive races across the land were several in California and ones in Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina and Oregon.

Republicans appear likely to have maintained control of the U.S. House by a narrow margin, but there are still more than a dozen races, including the one in Maine, that the Associated Press has yet to call.

Some other election-oriented sites have, though, called the race for Golden, who has represented one of the whitest and most rural districts in the nation since 2018 despite its consistently strong support for Donald Trump in three straight presidential elections.

Austin Theriault’s first commercial served as his introduction to voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District who may not have been familiar with the Fort Kent Republican. Austin Theriault campaign

The 2018 race where Golden unseated Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin in another squeaker wound up costing at least $24 million, less than half the tab for this year’s contest.

Expensive as the Maine 2nd District race was this year, it pales in comparison to Maine’s most costly contest. In 2020, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ successful reelection campaign cost more than $200 million as outside groups poured money into Maine.

The winner in the Maine congressional race will be more certain after ranked-choice ballots are added to the totals this week. The runoff tabulation is slated to begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

If the tally after the ranked-choice runoff is complete remains within a 1% margin, Theriault can ask for a recount without having to pay for it if he loses. He has indicated he will ask for one.

“Given that this is the closest race in modern Maine history, we must ensure a full, accurate count, and that will likely take some time,” Shawn Roderick, Theriault’s campaign manager, said in a prepared statement.

“Unfortunately, that means that we’re looking at a lengthy process, and we’re looking at this taking weeks — not days — to ensure Mainers’ voices are heard,” he said. “We have to follow the process and the law to ensure every vote is counted fairly and accurately.”