US Midterm Ad Spending Reaches $11.6 Billion

Political advertising in the 2026 US midterm elections is projected to cost $11.6 billion, a figure that exceeds spending in the 2024 presidential race, according to estimates from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. The vote takes place on November 3.

The projected total reflects spending across political organizations and businesses seeking to influence federal policy. Federal Election Commission data compiled for the election cycle shows that the 50 largest donors and organizations contributed a combined $2.77 billion. Republican-aligned contributors accounted for $1.67 billion, or about 60 percent of that sum. Democratic-aligned contributors gave $832 million, representing 30 percent. The remaining $264 million came from donors classified as bipartisan or special interest, including groups supporting sports betting and cryptocurrency.

Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, is the largest individual contributor of the cycle with $446 million. Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein, founders of the shipping supplies company Uline, contributed $150 million, and Jeff and Janine Yass contributed $110 million. Jeff Yass cofounded the trading firm Susquehanna International Group. All three contributions went to Republican-aligned groups.

Democratic-aligned individual contributors include George Soros, founder of the Open Society Foundations, who gave $102 million; Mike Bloomberg, founder of the financial data company Bloomberg, who gave $84 million; and Reid Hoffman and Michelle Yee, who gave $41 million. Reid Hoffman cofounded LinkedIn.

Individuals may donate up to $3,500 per election to a federal candidate's campaign during the 2025-26 cycle. Large contributions are legal because most of the money goes to super political action committees, which can accept donations of any size. Super PACs emerged in 2010 after two court rulings allowed independent groups to spend unlimited sums on elections. The groups must report donors to the Federal Election Commission but cannot coordinate spending with candidates or their campaigns.

Some major contributors are nonprofit groups that are not required to disclose their own donors, including One Nation and Majority Forward. Lawrence Lessig, a professor of law and leadership at Harvard Law School, said the money is hidden from the public but not from officials. "It's not dark to the politicians. It's dark to us," he said during a debate on money in US elections with Bradley Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission. "Nobody's confused from the politician's side about where this money is coming from, and they know what they need to do."

Lessig said the distribution of donations matters more than the total cost of the election. "The problem isn't the spending. The problem is the concentration of donors," he said. "If you don't have $100 million to put on the table, you're not going to matter in the way that we think that people ought to matter in a democracy." Four individual donors have each given more than $100 million.

Political nonprofits led the organizational rankings. One Nation, a nonprofit aligned with Senate Republican leadership, gave $133 million, followed by American Action Network, linked to House Republican leadership, with $64.3 million. Majority Forward, allied with Democratic Senate leadership, gave $102 million, and House Majority Forward gave $93.7 million. Cryptocurrency firms also contributed: Coinbase gave $57.8 million, Ripple gave $49.6 million, and Foris DAX, the company behind Crypto.com, gave $39 million. The industrial conglomerate Koch contributed $46.8 million, and DraftKings, a sports betting company, gave $40.4 million.