In races across the country, Democratic candidates or groups that support them have released ads accusing Republicans of protecting pedophiles by voting against legislation to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

The ads appear intended to evoke an emotional response by accusing candidates of “protecting” Epstein, a notorious pedophile accused of running a sex-trafficking ring involving minors.

An analysis from CNN found that candidates and outside groups have spent more than $35m on Epstein-related ads. Another from the Washington Post found that Democrats spent more than $40m on Epstein-related ads across six key Senate races.

In Colorado, ads targeting Republican Jeff Crank note that the lawmaker voted against releasing the Epstein files. In one, the family members of Virginia Giuffre, a woman who survived abuse at the hands of Epstein and died by suicide last year, claim Crank “covered up Epstein’s crimes to protect Donald Trump”.

Ashley Hinson, a Senate candidate in Iowa, was accused of voting to “protect her donors” by refusing to vote to release the Epstein files.

“This week I had to explain to my boys, ‘No, Mom does not protect pedophiles,’” Hinson said in a campaign ad responding to attacks over the Epstein files.

An ad targeting Mike Collins, the Republican running for a Georgia Senate seat, says “Mike Collins voted against releasing the Epstein files even after he knew Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation exploited 14-year-old girls for sex”.

Florida Republican Jimmy Patronis faced an attack from his Democratic opponent, claiming he called investigating Epstein “a waste of his time”.

A spokesperson for Crank’s campaign accused the Epstein-related ad of being “intentionally vague”, in a statement to the Washington Post, because his position was that he would vote against the file’s release until he could be confident that victim information was properly redacted. The campaign also said it was “unfortunate” that his opponent, Jessica Killin, was “preying on a grieving family with the help of the Washington Democrats”.

Crank’s staff invited and met with Giuffre’s family, though Crank himself did not meet with them in person, the New York Times reported. Crank’s campaign also said it offered to meet with Epstein victims before the vote on the legislation.

Last year, Democrats and a select few House Republicans tried to force a vote on the Epstein files through a discharge petition – a procedure used in Congress to bypass the traditional steps of legislation and force a vote on the House floor.

Donald Trump, who knew Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, opposed the discharge petition for the files, reversing his campaign promise to increase government transparency. House Republicans largely aligned themselves with him, prompting anger from high-profile Trump voters.

Eventually, under pressure from allies, Trump supported the legislation, giving Republican lawmakers the go-ahead to vote for it. All but one House Republican voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Many of the ads omit the fact that nearly every House Republican voted to release the Epstein files when the Epstein Files Transparency Act came to the floor, although at that point Trump had agreed to sign the legislation and release the files. Instead, the ads refer to Republicans opposing early attempts to force the legislation to the floor.

Republicans have pointed to this fact when disputing the attack ads.

“Of course I voted to release the Epstein files,” Hinson said in a direct-to-camera ad, accusing her opponent, Josh Turek, of lying. While Hinson voted for the final Epstein Files Transparency Act, she did not sign on to the discharge petition.

Patronis, meanwhile, never called the investigation a “waste of time”, but told a local radio station that while he had “no problem getting everything all released”, the issue was a “massive energy and time suck at the end of the day”.

Melissa Stone, a spokesperson for Patronis’s campaign, highlighted his work with Trump to obtain disaster funding after Hurricane Isaias and said his opponent, Gay Valimont, was “still talking about a dead pedophile in a sad web video than helping the people of [the first congressional district] recover.”

Some Republicans and groups supporting the GOP have sought to flip the script, accusing Democrats of taking money from donors who had ties to Epstein.

During a Georgia Senate debate, Collins accused his opponent, Jon Ossoff, of accepting campaign donations from Reid Hoffman, a tech billionaire who had ties to Epstein. Hoffman has said he only knew Epstein through fundraising relationships and regrets it.

“You can claim to fight against the Epstein class, but I’m going to tell you, this call is coming from inside the house and the Epstein class is on stage right now and it’s you,” Collins said.

In New Mexico’s gubernatorial race, an outside group released an ad accusing Democratic candidate Deb Haaland of accepting a ride on Epstein’s private jet and taking “tens of thousands of dollars from Epstein businesses” and then “asking for more”.

Haaland did not fly on Epstein’s jet, but did take a flight booked by one of Epstein’s companies in 2014. Haaland has said she was unaware the chartered flight was owned by an Epstein-owned company.