Political advertising will reach a record $11.6 billion in the 2026 midterm election cycle, nearly matching the $11.2 billion spent during the 2024 presidential race and topping the 2022 midterms by $2.7 billion. Broadcast television still commands the largest share at 48%, while connected TV and digital platforms drive most of the cycle’s growth.
Political Advertising in America 2026 – Introduction
Political advertising in the US point to the single most expensive midterm cycle in American history. AdImpact’s latest projection puts total spending at $11.6 billion, a figure that would have been unthinkable for a non-presidential election year a decade ago, and one that now sits just below 2024’s full presidential-cycle total. Competitive Senate races, open gubernatorial seats, and a House majority hanging on a handful of districts have combined to flood broadcast television, streaming platforms and social media with campaign dollars at a pace that outstrips even the record-setting 2022 cycle.
What makes political advertising statistics in the US 2026 especially notable is not just the total, but where the growth is concentrated. Broadcast television remains the financial backbone of political campaigns, but connected TV and streaming have roughly doubled their share since 2022, and billionaire-funded super PACs now account for a meaningful share of the fall advertising surge. This report breaks down campaign spending, TV ad allocation, digital ad trends, and the states absorbing the heaviest buys, using data confirmed through late September 2026.
Interesting Facts About Political Advertising in the US 2026
2026 MIDTERM POLITICAL AD SPENDING BY CHANNEL (billions of dollars)
Broadcast TV | ████████████████████████████ 5.6
Connected TV/Stream | ██████████████ 2.7
Digital platforms | ████████ 1.6
Cable TV | ████ 0.77-1.1
Radio | █ 0.12-0.23
| Fact | Confirmed 2026 Data |
|---|---|
| Total projected 2026 cycle spending | $11.6 billion |
| 2024 presidential cycle comparison | $11.2 billion |
| 2022 midterm cycle comparison | $8.9 billion |
| Growth over 2022 | 21.4% |
| Broadcast TV share of spending | 48% ($5.6 billion) |
| Connected TV/streaming share | 23% ($2.7 billion) |
| Top-spending state | California, $1.1 billion |
Source: AdImpact political ad tracker, September 2026; eMarketer US Political Ad Spending 2026 report; Kinetiq Political Insights (KPI), September 2026.
The chart shows how lopsided the channel split remains even in 2026: broadcast television alone captures $5.6 billion, more than double the combined total of connected TV and digital platforms. The table underneath fills in the scale of the cycle overall — a $11.6 billion total that represents 21.4% growth over 2022 and comes within $400,000 of matching a full presidential election year’s spending, despite midterms historically drawing far less national attention and money than presidential contests.
California’s position as the single largest spending state, at $1.1 billion, reflects its expensive media markets and multiple competitive House districts rather than a competitive Senate or governor’s race, since California elects neither this cycle. That single data point captures a broader truth about 2026: spending increasingly concentrates wherever House control is being decided, not just where marquee statewide races are happening.
Campaign Spending by Office 2026: Senate, House and Governor Races
| Race Type | Projected 2026 Spending |
|---|---|
| House and Senate combined | $5.0 billion (nearly half of total) |
| Gubernatorial races | $1.95 billion |
| Open governor’s seats driving spending | Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin |
| Top 5 spending states | California, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas |
Source: Basis Technologies, “How Political Advertising Will Impact the Media Landscape in 2026,” August 2026.
Congressional races absorb the largest single share of the cycle’s money, with House and Senate spending combined projected at $5.0 billion, close to half of all political advertising nationally. That concentration reflects how narrowly divided both chambers currently are: Republicans hold slim majorities in the House and Senate alike, meaning a relatively small number of contested districts and states could flip control of Congress, and campaign strategists are pricing that uncertainty into record ad reservations months before Election Day.
Gubernatorial spending, while smaller at $1.95 billion, is unusually concentrated around three open seats — Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — where no incumbent is running and both parties see a genuine opportunity to win. The five states absorbing the most total political ad spending — California, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas — span a mix of expensive media markets and genuinely competitive races, illustrating that 2026’s spending map is being drawn by both the price of reaching voters and the closeness of the contests themselves. For the voter and turnout dynamics underlying these spending patterns, see this detailed breakdown of US election system statistics, which covers the full midterm calendar and the roughly 204.6 million registered voters campaigns are targeting.
TV Advertising Statistics 2026: Broadcast Still Leads, But CTV Is Catching Up
TV AD SPENDING TRENDS: 2022 vs 2026 (connected TV/streaming, billions)
2022 CTV spending | ████████████████ 1.6
2026 CTV spending | ████████████████████████████ 2.7-2.9
| Metric | 2022 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| CTV/streaming political ad spending | $1.6 billion | $2.7–2.9 billion |
| CTV share of total political ad spend | Smaller share | 23% |
| Video ad spend allocated to TV (all forms) | Lower | 85% (highest since 2016) |
| Video ad spend on mobile, desktop, social combined | Higher | 15% |
Source: Campaigns & Elections, Cross Screen Media report; AdImpact political ad tracker, September 2026.
Connected TV and streaming have nearly doubled their political ad dollars since the 2022 midterms, climbing from $1.6 billion to a projected $2.7 to $2.9 billion in 2026, driven by the simple fact that more than 60% of US households now treat a streaming service as their primary way of watching television. Platforms that accept political advertising, including Hulu, Roku and YouTube, have seen the sharpest increases in ad prices as a result, since political campaigns competing for the same limited streaming inventory push up costs for every other advertiser trying to buy space alongside them.
Traditional broadcast TV, despite all the streaming growth, has not lost its dominant position — in fact, television’s overall share of political video spending actually rose to 85% in 2026, its highest point since 2016, precisely because connected TV counts as a form of television rather than a separate digital category. Mobile, desktop and social advertising combined make up just 15% of political video spend, a reminder that even in an era defined by digital targeting, campaigns still overwhelmingly chase eyeballs on a screen that functions like a TV, whether that screen runs through a cable box or a streaming app.
Digital and Social Media Ad Spending 2026: A Smaller Slice Than Expected
DIGITAL/SOCIAL PLATFORM SHARE OF TOTAL POLITICAL AD SPEND
2024 presidential cycle | ███████████████ 15%
2026 midterm cycle | █████████████ 13%
| Metric | 2026 Figure |
|---|---|
| Total digital ad spending (Facebook, Google, Snapchat, X) | $1.6 billion |
| Digital share of total political ad spend | 13% (down from 15% in 2024) |
| Streaming and digital combined (KPI estimate) | $4.14 billion |
| Spending per persuadable swing voter (video ads) | $516 |
Source: Basis Technologies; Kinetiq Political Insights (KPI), September 2026; Campaigns & Elections, Cross Screen Media.
Despite years of predictions that digital advertising would eventually eclipse television in politics, 2026’s numbers tell a more modest story: spending on social platforms like Facebook, Google, Snapchat and X is projected at $1.6 billion, representing just 13% of total political ad spend, actually down from 15% during the 2024 presidential cycle. The explanation is less about digital losing relevance and more about connected TV absorbing the growth that might once have gone to social platforms, since CTV offers similar audience-targeting capability with the production value and perceived credibility of traditional television.
The cost of reaching persuadable voters has climbed sharply regardless of channel. Cross Screen Media’s analysis found campaigns are now spending roughly $516 in video ads for every genuinely persuadable swing voter, a figure that reflects both shrinking numbers of truly undecided voters and rising overall ad prices driven by the sheer volume of 2026 spending competing for the same limited inventory. This dynamic connects directly to the outsized role large donors play in funding the air war, detailed further in this look at billionaires in the US: billionaires had already poured almost $1.6 billion into the 2026 midterms as of late September, with roughly 65% going to Republican-aligned efforts, led by Elon Musk’s more than $90 million in commitments.
Super PAC and State-Level Spending 2026: Where the Money Concentrates
TOP 5 STATES BY PROJECTED 2026 POLITICAL AD SPENDING (billions)
California | ████████████████████████████████████████████ 1.1
Michigan | ███████████████████████████ est.
Georgia | ██████████████████████ est.
North Carolina | ████████████████████ est.
Texas | ██████████████████ est.
| Metric | 2026 Figure |
|---|---|
| Top spending state | California, $1.1 billion |
| Four largest super PACs’ fall TV/cable/radio reservations | $727 million (46% of fall reservations) |
| Maine per-adult political ad spending | ~$419 (highest of any state) |
| Texas Senate race, conservative super PAC spending (Paxton) | $98.5 million |
Source: Kinetiq Political Insights (KPI), September 2026; Bruce Mehlman, “Six-Chart Sunday,” September 2026.
Four super PACs — the Congressional Leadership Fund, House Majority PAC, Senate Leadership Fund and WinSenate — had reserved a combined $727 million in fall television, cable and radio advertising by mid-September, representing 46% of all such reservations for the remainder of the cycle. That concentration among just four outside groups illustrates how much of 2026’s advertising firepower sits outside candidates’ own campaign committees, in organizations that can raise and spend unlimited sums as long as they operate independently of the campaigns they support.
Per-capita spending tells its own story about where campaigns see the most value in reaching individual voters. Maine, with its competitive Senate race, is projected to see roughly $419 in political advertising per adult resident, by far the highest rate of any state and enough, as one analysis noted, to cover a month of groceries for the average person being targeted. Texas’s Senate race shows a similar imbalance between candidate spending and outside money: while Democratic candidate James Talarico’s campaign had spent just under $50 million on general-election advertising by late September, Republican incumbent Ken Paxton’s own campaign had spent only about $465,000, relying instead on conservative super PACs that spent $98.5 million supporting him — a gap that shows how thoroughly outside spending has come to dominate even marquee statewide races.
Political Ad Spending Timing 2026: The October Surge
2026 POLITICAL AD SPENDING PACE VS 2022 (cumulative, by date)
By July 16 | $4.8 billion
By Aug 26 | $6.1 billion
By Sept 11 | $2.5B in TV/cable/radio alone — $292M ahead of 2022 pace
| Date | Cumulative Spending |
|---|---|
| By July 16, 2026 | $4.8 billion |
| By August 26, 2026 | $6.1 billion |
| By September 11, 2026 (TV/cable/radio only) | $2.5 billion, $292M ahead of 2022’s pace |
| Chicago October TV spending in comparable cycle | 64% of all monthly TV ad spending |
Source: AdImpact political ad tracker; The Desk, “Political ad spending reaches $6.1 billion,” August 2026; Kinetiq Political Insights (KPI), September 2026.
Political advertising spending accelerates on a predictable calendar, and 2026 has followed that pattern while consistently outpacing prior cycles at every checkpoint. Spending jumped from $4.8 billion by mid-July to $6.1 billion just six weeks later, an increase of $1.3 billion in under two months, as campaigns and outside groups moved from early positioning into sustained fall advertising. By September 11, KPI found television, cable and radio spending alone had already reached $2.5 billion, running $292 million ahead of the comparable point in the 2022 cycle.
The final weeks before Election Day historically absorb a disproportionate share of the total budget, and nothing in 2026’s data suggests that pattern is changing. In the last comparable midterm cycle, Chicago alone saw 35% of its entire political TV ad spending land in October, representing 64% of all television advertising bought in the city that month. With 2026 already running ahead of 2022’s pace through September, campaigns and analysts widely expect the final AdImpact tallies to climb further once October’s numbers are fully counted, keeping the cycle on track to approach, and possibly exceed, the $11.6 billion current projection.
Frequently Asked Questions About Political Advertising in the US 2026
How much will be spent on political advertising in the US in 2026?
AdImpact projects $11.6 billion in total political advertising for the 2026 midterm cycle, the most expensive midterm election cycle in US history.
How does 2026 political ad spending compare to 2024 and 2022?
2026’s projected $11.6 billion nearly matches the 2024 presidential cycle’s $11.2 billion and exceeds the 2022 midterms’ $8.9 billion by roughly 21.4%.
What share of political ad spending goes to television?
Broadcast television captures 48% of total spending ($5.6 billion), while connected TV and streaming add another 23% ($2.7 billion), meaning television in all forms accounts for roughly 71% of political advertising.
How much is spent on digital and social media political ads?
Digital platforms including Facebook, Google, Snapchat and X are projected to receive $1.6 billion, representing 13% of total spending, actually down from 15% during the 2024 presidential cycle.
Which state has the most political ad spending in 2026?
California leads all states at a projected $1.1 billion, followed by Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.
Which state sees the most political ads per person?
Maine, driven by its competitive Senate race, is projected to see roughly $419 in political advertising per adult resident, the highest rate of any state in 2026.
How much are super PACs spending in the 2026 midterms?
Four major super PACs — the Congressional Leadership Fund, House Majority PAC, Senate Leadership Fund and WinSenate — had reserved $727 million in fall TV, cable and radio advertising as of mid-September, representing 46% of all such reservations.
Is political ad spending higher for House and Senate races or governor’s races?
House and Senate races combined account for roughly $5.0 billion, nearly half of total spending, compared with $1.95 billion for gubernatorial races.
Why is connected TV (CTV) growing so quickly in political advertising?
More than 60% of US households now use streaming as their primary way of watching television, and CTV offers the targeting precision of digital advertising combined with the reach and perceived credibility of traditional TV.
How much does it cost to reach a persuadable swing voter in 2026?
Campaigns are spending roughly $516 per persuadable swing voter in video advertising alone, according to Cross Screen Media’s analysis of the 2026 cycle.
When does political ad spending peak during a midterm cycle?
Spending accelerates sharply in the final weeks before Election Day. In the last comparable cycle, cities like Chicago saw more than a third of their entire campaign TV budget land in October alone.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
