The National Rifle Association spent nearly $150,000 to support state Sen. Lloyd Smucker’s congressional bid in the week before his primary victory against Manheim businessman Chet Beiler.

Smucker won the Republican nomination in the 16th Congressional District race, in part, because of a barrage of last-minute radio, Internet and phone advertisements from the influential gun-rights lobby.

“Any of that type of support absolutely makes a difference,” said Mike Barley, Smucker’s campaign spokesman.

The $147,185 that the NRA spent on Smucker's behalf was among the most the powerful lobbying group spent on any candidate in the country before the April 26 primary, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

He was one of only eight candidates nationwide — and the lone candidate running in Pennsylvania — who received financial support from the organization before the primary.

The advertisements proved valuable in the last week of a competitive race between the two-term state lawmaker and Beiler, the CEO of Amish Country Gazebos who had previously fell short in two campaigns for statewide offices.

Smucker defeated Beiler with 54 percent of the vote.

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“The last week or so is critical in an election,” said Gabe Neville, former chief of staff to retiring U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, who Smucker is looking to replace. “Many voters are not paying close attention until the very end.”

Pitts remained neutral in the primary contest, which took on a negative tone as the candidates gave more than a half a million dollars each to their respective campaign organizations.

In addition to fundraising, Smucker and Beiler spent large sums of their own money on their campaigns —including more than $100,000 each in the last three weeks.

The NRA’s spending in the final week represented the only outside, independent group to spend money on either candidate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The group decided to endorse Smucker because of his opposition to bills that would enact stricter gun regulations, such as bans on semi-automatic firearms or federal gun databases, according a press release from the NRA-Political Victory Fund. The release also cited Smucker's vote in favor of Act 192, the controversial 2015 law aimed to make it easier for gun owners to challenge local gun control ordinances.

The support also comes eight years after NRA questioned a gun-control ordinance in West Lampeter Township — when Smucker was a supervisor there — that the group argued was in violation of the Second Amendment.

Barley said nobody in the Smucker campaign coordinated the spending with the NRA or knew it was happening, as required by federal campaign finance laws.