The contributions bring the company’s giving to those committees this year to $712,500, according to reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Election Commission. The latest reports were filed last week, ahead of the November election.

Adams, a Louisville Republican, is seeking a fourth consecutive term in the Senate. She faces Democrat Sarah Cole McIntosh, a former Jefferson County Board of Education member. Adams chairs the Senate Licensing and Occupations Committee, which considers legislation involving horse racing and gambling.

GOPAC, a national committee that supports Republican candidates for state and local office, reported spending $479,158 on independent ads supporting Adams. The Republican State Leadership Committee reported $149,000 in advertising supporting Adams or opposing McIntosh. Election registry records show the two groups have bought ads in Kentucky this year only for Adams.

The Louisville-based Commonwealth Conservative Coalition reported spending $40,000 on ads opposing McIntosh, as well as advertising for other Republican legislative candidates. Churchill Downs gave the coalition $50,000 on Sept. 8.

Churchill Downs’ latest-quarter contributions included $270,000 to GOPAC, bringing its 2026 total to that group to $355,000, and $250,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee, bringing its total there to $307,500.

The coalition has received substantial funding from the two national committees. Through Sept. 30, GOPAC had contributed $450,000 and the Republican State Leadership Committee $300,000 — together accounting for 53.4% of the coalition’s contributions this year, federal records show.

The committees’ independent spending is not a contribution to Adams’ campaign. State law bars lobbyists from donating directly to state legislative candidates, but Kentucky lobbying firms can contribute to political committees such as GOPAC and the Republican State Leadership Committee. Those firms had given the two groups a combined $150,000 this year, according to the disclosures.

Churchill Downs was the largest Kentucky-based corporate donor to the national committees. Other Kentucky companies and associations also contributed, including Louisville-based Sazerac Company, which gave $100,500, and Brown-Forman, which gave $59,185. GOPAC and the Republican State Leadership Committee raise money nationally and reported receiving $13 million and $27 million, respectively, in the latest quarter.

The records detail how corporate and industry-linked money can flow through political committees into independent election advertising, including in a race involving a senator whose committee oversees legislation affecting horse racing and gambling. They do not establish that the donations or advertising were coordinated with Adams’ campaign.