Topic
Paid broadcast, cable and digital messaging bought by political campaigns and outside groups to persuade voters, tracked by ad-spending monitors.
More than 60% of the estimated $11.6 billion in 2026 political spending will go to broadcast and cable TV, Business Insider reported. Strategist Rob Flaherty says operatives copy one another and consultants earn more as the TV share rises.
Reality
Republicans hold $1 billion to Democrats' $579 million, but Trump-aligned groups booking in September sometimes pay over five times earlier rates. At those prices the cash lead buys less airtime than its size suggests, though the record cannot say how much less nationally.
Perspective Coverage
4 publishersReality
Business Insider reviewed 130 US political TV ads and found candidates of every party attacking AI mostly over electricity costs, water use and tax breaks. Companies that need local approval to build now hear that cost case from challengers in both parties.
Reality
Abortion runs in fewer than 5 percent of Democratic Senate ads nationally and about 15 percent of the $40.8 million spent in Maine, where Planned Parenthood Votes has placed its largest buy of 2026 against Susan Collins.
Reality
Approval among Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 has gone from 93 percent to 66 percent, and the researcher reporting it says the reason is that Latinos carry more of the wage workforce than any other group.
Reality
More than $3.4 billion is chasing a chamber that decides who staffs the administration and who fills open court seats for the rest of the term, and the spending so far shows the two sides pricing the same seats very differently.
Reality