The 2025-2026 Election Cycle Is Officially the Most Expensive
The 2025-2026 political cycle is the most expensive in U.S. history.
New spending numbers tracked by AdImpact this week show $11.21 billion in ad buys and reservations, a staggering figure that’s almost guaranteed to increase in the remaining days before the Nov. 3 elections.
The latest numbers put the 2025 and 2026 elections ahead of the $11.2 billion spent on advertising during the 2023-2024 political cycle that included a massively expensive presidential contest.
The massive price tag of the 2025-2026 is driven by record-breaking spending at nearly every level of politics.
All told, $3.2 billion has been spent on Senate races this year, matching the $3.2 billion spent on the 2024 presidential race, AdImpact data shows. House races, meanwhile, account for about $2.3 billion in ad spending, up from $1.7 billion in the 2023-2024 cycle.
Gubernatorial races, meanwhile, account for roughly $2.6 billion in spending. The last time this many governor’s mansions were up for grabs, during the 2021-2022 political cycle, campaigns, committees and outside groups spent about $1.9 billion.
Ad spending on downballot and state legislative races is tied with that of Senate races at $3.2 billion, up from $3.1 billion in the 2023-2024 cycle and about equal to spending levels during the 2021-2022 cycle, according to AdImpact.
The 2025-2026 elections have long been projected to smash records. AdImpact previously estimated that the cycle would reach $11.6 billion, while post-Labor Day projections from political ad intelligence platform Kinetiq Political Insights pegged the final number closer to $12 billion.
Republicans, backed by cash-rich outside groups and party committees, have largely outspent Democrats, hoping that their financial edge can save their narrow congressional majorities, or at least keep their losses to a minimum in an increasingly unfriendly political environment for the GOP.
But at the candidate level, Democrats have outgunned their Republican opponents in ad spending, bolstered by strong grassroots fundraising numbers. And because candidates have access to lower ad rates, those campaign dollars tend to go further than money from outside groups.
