Where Is the Record 2026 Midterm Ad Money Going, Medium by Medium?

How Much Has Been Spent on 2026 Midterm Ads?

AdImpact, the ad-tracking firm most newsrooms cite for political spending, counted $11.21 billion in spending and reservations for the 2025-26 cycle as of Monday, October 26, a week before Election Day. That narrowly passes the $11.20 billion it counted for the whole 2023-24 presidential cycle and is more than $2.3 billion above the 2022 midterm record of $8.9 billion (TheWrap). Two caveats travel with the number: it is not adjusted for inflation, and it includes airtime booked for the final days, not only ads that have already run.

The count has moved quickly. AdImpact’s first 2025-26 projection, published after it had tracked $900 million through August 26, 2025, put the whole cycle at $10.8 billion (AdImpact). On June 11, 2026 it raised that to $11.6 billion, which it called the most expensive cycle on record (AdImpact). TIME reported that spending passed $10 billion in mid-October and that the totals exclude staffing, travel and voter outreach (TIME). The firm’s record on its own forecasts is a reasonable guide: it says its 2024 projection of $10.7 billion came within 5% of the actual $11.2 billion (AdImpact).

The money is concentrated by race. AdImpact’s June projection put Senate races at $3.4 billion, 48% above 2022, governors’ races at $2.4 billion and House races at $2.0 billion, revised down because redistricting made 28 House races less competitive (AdImpact).

Which Media Get the Money?

Local broadcast television gets about half, connected TV (streaming TV sold with ad targeting) about a quarter, and digital platforms most of the rest. AdImpact’s June projection gives broadcast $5.6 billion, or 48% of the cycle, connected TV $2.7 billion (23%) and digital, meaning Facebook, Google, Snapchat and X, $1.6 billion (AdImpact). Gabelli Funds, an investment firm that follows station groups, adds AdImpact’s cable projection of $1.4 billion and radio at $300 million (Gabelli Funds). The aired money so far follows the same order: of about $3 billion that ran in the third quarter of 2026, broadcast took 51%, connected TV 23% and digital 15% (TheWrap).

The chart shows the shape of the cycle at its midpoint: broadcast alone had taken more money than connected TV, digital and cable combined.

Connected TV is the line that has changed most across cycles. Gabelli reports its share of political spending at 12% in 2022, 21% in 2024 and a projected 23% in 2026 (Gabelli Funds). AdImpact calls it “the fastest-growing media type in political advertising” and raised its projection from $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion in June (AdImpact).

Where Did the New Money Go Over the Summer?

Mostly to broadcast. Inside Radio published AdImpact’s medium-by-medium tallies on July 14 and again on August 25, 2026 (Inside Radio, July 14; Inside Radio, August 25). The table compares the two. The shares, changes and percentages are our own arithmetic from those published figures.

Two readings follow. First, connected TV is the fastest-growing medium across cycles but not within this one’s summer: broadcast grew faster in percentage terms and took nearly six of every ten new dollars. Second, broadcast’s 51% share of third-quarter airings sits above its 48% share of AdImpact’s full-cycle projection, which suggests other media are expected to carry a larger part of the final weeks. That second point is our inference from two published figures, not an AdImpact statement.

The local picture is just as uneven. In the August 25 tally the top media markets were Los Angeles ($270 million), Washington ($228 million), Atlanta ($226 million), Detroit ($157 million) and Portland, Maine ($147 million) (Inside Radio).

Why Do Candidates and Super PACs Pay Different Rates?

Federal law guarantees candidates, and only candidates, a station’s best rate close to an election. In “the 60 days preceding the date of a general or special election,” and the 45 days before a primary, a broadcast station may charge a legally qualified candidate no more than “the lowest unit charge of the station for the same class and amount of time for the same period” (47 CFR 73.1942). For the November 3 general election, the window opened on September 4 by our count. Outside it, candidates pay no more than “comparable use” by commercial advertisers.

Super PACs and issue groups are not covered and “generally command the highest rates,” Gabelli reports, which pushes up the price of the same inventory for everyone else (Gabelli Funds). Rates also climb through the fall: in 2024, Gabelli says, candidate rates rose 38% from April-June to September and another 20% in October. By our arithmetic, that compounds to about 66% above the spring level by October.

What Did the Political Money Do to Other Advertisers?

It took inventory earlier than usual. Gabelli reports that political crowd-out of other advertisers, which historically ramped in October, now begins around Labor Day, and that Nexstar lowered its third-quarter core (non-political) revenue guidance to a mid-single-digit decline partly because of it (Gabelli Funds). The station groups are the other side of the trade. Gabelli lists Gray Media’s third-quarter political guidance at $188 million to $195 million, Sinclair’s 2026 political guidance at $375 million or more, and E.W. Scripps’s at $225 million to $250 million.

Digital platforms closed a door of their own in the final week. PPC Land reported, citing a Meta notice, that Meta would accept no new U.S. ads about social issues, elections or politics from 12:01 a.m. Pacific on October 27 through 11:59 p.m. Pacific on November 3, 2026; ads that had already delivered an impression could keep running with limited edits (PPC Land). We could not open Meta’s notice itself, so this rests on a single trade-press report. Google, for its part, requires verification and a “paid for by” disclosure for U.S. election ads and limits their targeting to location, age, gender and context (Google Ads Help).

What This Means for Anyone Buying a Placement

For a business or nonprofit, a midterm fall is a season to plan around rather than buy into. The recommendations below are ours, not rules any station or platform has published.

• Expect local TV to be the tightest medium. Broadcast takes the largest share of political money and is the medium where candidates hold a rate guarantee. If a launch must run in a contested market in September or October, budget for it early or move it to a medium with less political demand. For the year-round market these figures sit inside, see our WARC global ad spend explainer.
• Treat earned local coverage the same way. The same desks that air the ads cover the races. Our guide to getting booked on local TV news covers how segments are booked; in election weeks, non-urgent pitches compete with hours of results coverage, as our election-night explainer describes.
• Check who is buying around you. Every station’s political file and every major platform’s ad library is public. Our new guide on how to look up political ads shows where to search.
• Do not read the record as a verdict. Spending is not a result. Nothing in AdImpact’s figures says which campaigns persuade anyone, and nothing here predicts an outcome.

Methodology and Limitations

Four limits apply. First, every spending figure here comes from one tracker, AdImpact, read on its own site where possible and otherwise as reported by TheWrap, TIME, Inside Radio and Gabelli Funds; other trackers count differently, and we did not mix their figures. Second, the July and August tallies are snapshots of spending tracked at those dates, while the $11.21 billion October figure includes future reservations, so the three numbers sit on different bases and should not be subtracted from one another. Third, AdImpact’s full medium breakdown sits in a downloadable report we did not open; the cable and radio projections come from Gabelli’s summary of it. Fourth, we left out party-by-party totals on purpose. This page is about where the money goes by medium, not which side spends more, and it makes no prediction about any race.

Conclusion

The record is real on AdImpact’s count and the direction is clear: about half of the money still buys local broadcast time, connected TV is taking a larger share each cycle, and digital platforms carry a smaller slice than their place in everyday media plans would suggest. For anyone else trying to reach the same viewers, the uncomfortable conclusion is that in a midterm year the fall belongs to political buyers from Labor Day onward, and the cheapest way through it is usually to schedule around it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources and Methodology

This explainer is built from AdImpact’s June 11, 2026 projection and its 2025-26 projections page, TheWrap’s October 27, 2026 report of AdImpact’s latest count, TIME’s October 19, 2026 report, Inside Radio’s July 14 and August 25, 2026 reports of AdImpact’s medium tallies, Gabelli Funds’ October 1, 2026 political advertising outlook, the federal lowest-unit-charge rule, Google’s U.S. election ads policy and PPC Land’s report of Meta’s final-week restriction, all read on November 3, 2026. The July-to-August comparison table, the shares, the percentage changes, the 60-day window date and the compounded rate figure are our own arithmetic. The recommendations for buyers are ours, not rules any station or platform has published. Party-by-party figures are left out on purpose.

1. vendor research AdImpact, AdImpact Reveals 2026 Election Cycle to Reach Record $11.6 Billion in Ad Spending. June 11, 2026 projection: total, broadcast, CTV and digital figures and shares, race-type projections, 2022 and 2024 comparisons. Read November 3, 2026.
2. vendor research AdImpact, AdImpact’s 2025-2026 Political Projections. First $10.8 billion projection, $2.5 billion CTV, $900 million tracked through August 26, 2025, 2024 forecast accuracy. Read November 3, 2026.
3. trade press TheWrap, Midterm Political Ad Spending Hits Record $11.21 Billion. October 26 count of $11.21 billion, 2023-24 comparison, inflation and reservation caveats, third-quarter shares by medium. Read November 3, 2026.
4. trade press TIME, Midterm Ad Spending Has Surpassed $10B. Where Is the Money Coming From?. Spending past $10 billion in mid-October; totals exclude staffing, travel and outreach. Read November 3, 2026.
5. trade press Inside Radio, Radio Political Spending Tops $100 Million. AdImpact tallies by medium as of July 14, 2026. Read November 3, 2026.
6. trade press Inside Radio, Radio Political Dollars Surge, With Post-Labor Day Rush Coming. AdImpact tallies by medium and top markets as of August 25, 2026; chart data. Read November 3, 2026.
7. vendor research Gabelli Funds, 2026 Political Advertising Outlook. Cable and radio projections, CTV share history, lowest-unit-rate discussion, crowd-out timing, station-group guidance, 2024 rate increases. Read November 3, 2026.
8. regulator Legal Information Institute (U.S. Code of Federal Regulations), 47 CFR § 73.1942, Candidate rates. Lowest unit charge text and windows. Read November 3, 2026.
9. platform documentation Google Ads Help, Political content policy. U.S. election ads verification, paid-for-by disclosure and targeting limits. Read November 3, 2026.
10. trade press PPC Land, Meta blocks new US political ads for 8 days before the midterm vote. Meta’s October 27 to November 3, 2026 restriction on new U.S. political ads (single source). Read November 3, 2026.