Perspective: Midterm money madness
Audio will be available later today.
Troy Jackson (D) directs a question to Sen. Susan Collins (R) during the final Maine U.S. Senate debate in Bangor, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. Gregory A. Rec/Pool Portland Press Herald/AP hide caption
Gregory A. Rec/Pool Portland Press Herald/AP
Campaign spending for these midterm elections passed 10 billion dollars this week, according to the tracking group AdImpact.
Maybe we should repeat that number: $10 billion dollars.
The senate race in Ohio, for example, has already cost more than $460 million in combined ad spending. The Texas Senate race has surpassed half a billion. Then there's $260 million more in the Maine Senate race.
The most expensive House race in the country isn't in California or New York, but Michigan's 7th congressional district with nearly $60 million in ads. Contests in Iowa and Florida are just under $50 million apiece.
There are limits on personal campaign contributions in the United States--but, since the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010, no limits on donations to "super PACs," which can publicly support or oppose candidates but can't directly coordinate with campaigns. Rich donors have used that ruling to steer hundreds of millions of dollars to support both parties, up and down the ballot. Elon Musk alone has given $276 million to Republican groups, just since July. George Soros has given more than $100 million dollars to Democrats this election cycle.
Meanwhile, voters, whom politicians are trying to win over with all these ads, tell pollsters and reporters that their top issues this fall are the economy and the cost of living. Inflation is up; gas prices have spiked since the start of the Iran war; groceries cost a third more than they did in 2019.
It is hard not to wonder: what could those hundreds of millions of ad dollars accomplish if they went toward food, gas, or shelter for those in need, or to help people with health care costs? Could some of it pay for school nurses, music teachers, and librarians? Subsidize addiction care? Clean up public parks?
Maybe a candidate could win support these days by declaring, "And I vow to spend less money on my campaign than my opponent!" After all, as the Los Angeles Dodgers might remind us this week, spending the most money doesn't always deliver victory.