Four Key Questions for Political Pros Before Election Day

With the 2026 midterm elections just a day away, political professionals are hunkering down to see whether their hard work paid off. 

But elections are also multi-faceted affairs shaped by political and economic circumstances, technological developments, news cycles and other factors. Here’s a look at just a few of the broader questions political professionals are thinking about heading into Election Day:

Has Unlimited Coordinated Spending Changed the Game?

The Supreme Court’s decision this summer to lift longstanding limits on coordinated party spending was widely expected to reshape how campaigns are funded and redefine the role political parties play in elections.

The question is: Have we seen the full impact of the ruling?

There’s no doubt that Republicans have more eagerly taken advantage of the new landscape than Democrats. A mid-October report from ad-tracking firm AdImpact found that Republican party committees had spent about $112.3 million in aired coordinated spending, compared to Democrats’ $61.3 million. 

That $112.3 million marked a roughly 70 percent increase over 2024 levels, when the federal limits were still in place. 

Still, the fact that the Supreme Court’s decision came just about four months before Election Day means that there likely wasn’t enough time for party committees and candidates to fully embrace unlimited coordinated spending. Of course, there’s always the next cycle.

What’s the Final Ad Spend Tally?

The political world crossed a major milestone last week when AdImpact reported that the 2025-2026 cycle had officially surpassed the 2023-2024 cycle in ad spending.

But pre-election forecasts also showed potential ad spending for the cycle climbing to nearly $12 billion. The question now: will the final spending number clear those marks? 

Even with record ad spending, political professionals on both sides of the aisle are going to have to figure out whether it was all worth it. Republicans have largely outgunned Democrats in ad spending, yet it’s still very possible that they lose their narrow House majority and even their Senate majority.

Of course, money matters in the world of campaigns. But post-Election Day, there’s bound to be a real conversation about just how far money goes when it actually comes to delivering results.

Is This Really the First AI Election?

The 2026 midterms are perhaps the first election where AI technology was adopted and deployed on a truly wide scale in politics: AI-generated ads went up on the air and were seen as more than just a novelty, AI agents fielded texts and questions from real-world voters and campaigns and firms have taken concrete steps to integrate the technology into their workflows in a meaningful way.

But how big of a difference did it actually make?

AI isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Political professionals are going to find new and creative ways to use the technology. But there are also clear risks: voters are largely skeptical of AI, are beginning to draw clear lines around when and how it’s used in politics and have genuine concerns about AI’s ability to mislead or deceive voters. 

Political professionals may have figured out how to use AI. But there are still plenty of challenges waiting ahead.

Can Polling Regain Some Trust?

Conversations about the accuracy of election polling have swirled for years, but the 2026 cycle was particularly disruptive, in some ways.

First, there’s the elephant in the room: fake survey data. At least twice this year, upstart companies copped to fabricating and distributing bogus poll numbers. In some cases, that fake data was shared online by campaigns, pundits and journalists, and some of it even wound up in the databases of prominent polling aggregators. 

There’s also new technological advances that are shaking up the polling business. Some researchers have begun experimenting with synthetic respondents – essentially AI personas built to simulate how voters think and behave – as a cheaper, faster way to deliver public opinion insights.

At the same time, prediction markets, like Kalshi and Polymarket, are hoping that they can prove their predictive worth in politics at a time when the traditional election polling industry is facing scrutiny. And while prediction markets aren’t likely to supplant survey research, their read on the 2026 midterms could earn them more credibility among poll-wary voters.