Stay tuned Election Day for a special issue of The AdVantage!
SIGNALS & TRENDS
Aired: $3.84B (⬆️219% from last month | ⬆️54% compared to Oct '22) Highest Aired Spending Advertiser: House Majority PAC ($204.4M) Republican vs Democratic Spending: 🔴$1.83B 🔵$1.68B Top States: TX ($402.4M), OH ($402.3M), CA ($361.2M) Top Markets: Detroit ($154.5M), Los Angeles ($126.8M), Cleveland ($119.8M) Broadcast Airings: 2.5M(⬆️ 108% from last month | ⬆️ 56% compared to Oct '22) Most Aired Broadcast Ad: Click Here Top Issues in Broadcast Ads (Republicans): Taxation, Immigration, Crime
Top Issues in Broadcast Ads (Democrats): Healthcare, Taxation, Trump
This Edition's Trivia: Which candidate has been targeted by the most attack ad broadcast airings this cycle?
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— Republican Spending Advantage in Senate Battlegrounds
Republicans have spent more than $1.1B on advertising targeting the ten Senate general elections rated Toss Up or Lean by The Cook Political Report, outspending Democrats by $288.5M. This marks a stark reversal from the previous two election cycles, when Democrats finished with spending advantages exceeding $100M in battleground Senate general elections. At this point in the 2024 cycle, Republicans led in ad spending in three of the nine Senate races rated Toss Up or Lean by Cook, compared to just two of nine in 2022.
Across most of the battleground Senate elections where Republicans hold the spending advantage, Democrats have kept the gap relatively narrow. Ohio and Texas are the notable exceptions, with Republicans outspending Democrats by $81.3M and $140.7M, respectively.
In both races, however, Democratic campaigns have outspent their Republican counterparts. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown's campaign has spent $72.6M, compared to $43.0M by Jon Husted's campaign. In Texas, James Talarico's campaign has spent $102.8M, 5x more the $20.3M spent by Ken Paxton's campaign.
Republican outside groups have helped drive the overall spending advantage in both contests, outspending Democratic groups by $110.9M in Ohio and $221.2M in Texas.
With Election Day approaching, Republicans hold the future reservation advantage in seven of the ten battleground Senate elections, while Democrats lead in Kansas and Iowa. New Hampshire is effectively tied.
Here's how future reservations are shaping up across the ten contests:
House general election ad spending is nearly evenly split between the two parties, with Republicans spending $830.4M compared to $825.9M by Democrats. For comparison, Democrats finished the 2022 cycle with a $119.1M spending advantage in House general elections, followed by a $192.0M advantage in 2024.
Three House general elections have surpassed $50M in ad spending this year, breaking the previous record of $47.2M set by the 2024 NY-19 general election. Of the ten most expensive House general elections on record, eight are from the 2026 cycle.
The top advertisers targeting House general elections were House Majority PAC ($267.4M), Congressional Leadership Fund ($232.2M), No Going Back PAC ($117.9M), Safety and Affordability ($60.2M), and American Action Network ($25.2M).
Through coordination with campaigns, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $95.5M across 64 elections. In comparison, the National Republican Congressional Committee spent $110.6M across 60 elections.
— Ad Trends Around the Nation
The Most Expensive Cycle...EVER — Last Monday, the 2025–2026 election cycle became the most expensive political cycle on record, surpassing the previous record set in 2023–2024. To date, we've tracked $11.6B in aired ad spending and future reservations this cycle. Record-breaking spending in Senate, House, and gubernatorial elections has propelled this cycle past the previous record, despite the absence of a presidential race, which accounted for $3.2B in spending during the 2023–2024 cycle.
Dems Double Down on Data Center Ad Messaging — This month, Democrats ran more than 166K broadcast airings about data centers, compared with just 21K from Republicans. In total, 8% of all broadcast airings this month mentioned data centers.
The 2025-2026 political cycle just became the most expensive cycle ever! With 8 days to go, it's seen $11.21B in total ad spending and reservations. The 2023-2024 cycle, complete with its $3.2B Presidential race, saw $11.20B.
