Democrats carried three U.S. House seats in Ohio this year by riding an avalanche of cash from their congressional committee. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent three times as much on the races than its Republican counterpart, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

The DCCC spent $6.02 million on the 1st, 15th, and 16th Congressional District races from July 1 to Election Day. Meanwhile, the National Republican Campaign Committee spent about $2 million across the 1st and 15th districts only.

Seven-term U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Cincinnati) outspent Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill) by $1 million, but still lost. That was in no small part due to the DCCC helping Driehaus overcome Chabot's advantage by spending $2.05 million. In television and radio buys alone, the DCCC spent $1.76 million.

The NRCC spent $1.05 million defending Chabot. Its media buys were less than half those of the DCCC: $682,000 for TV and radio.

While Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Columbus) outspent Steve Stivers (R-Columbus) by about $600,000 for the election cycle, the DCCC buried Stivers and the NRCC. It spent $2.13 million trying to wrest the seat from Republicans for the first time in four decades.

On media alone, the DCCC spent $1.79 million, or about as much as Stivers spent on his entire campaign.

Meanwhile, the NRCC spent $1 million less on media as the DCCC did: $777,000 for media buys. It spent $969,000 in total on Stivers' race.

The NRCC made no independent expenditures in the 16th district on behalf of state Sen. Kirk Schuring (R-Canton), who was trying to keep the seat in GOP hands with U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Navarre) retiring. That didn't stop the DCCC from putting $2 million behind state Sen. John Boccieri (D-Alliance).

Between the three races, the DCCC split its pies uniformly between media, mail and miscellaneous spending. About 85 percent of the DCCC's budget for the three races was spent on media buys. Roughly 10 percent was spent on mail. The remainders were spent on producing television and radio ads or phone bank operations.