• by Wayne Friedman , 8 hours ago

Ad spending for 2026 midterm political season is already trending 47% higher to $3.9 billion through May 29 versus the same time period in 2022, according to AdImpact.

For the 2022 midterms, spending amounted to $2.65 billion through the same day, and totaled $9.0 billion by November.

Earlier projections estimated that $10.8 billion would be spent for the entire 2026 political election period -- with $5.3 billion going to broadcast TV and $2.5 billion to connected TV.

Roughly 70% of overall political ad spend goes to TV (national/local) and streaming/CTV.

New projections from AdImpact for the entire political advertising season are coming next month.

The highest-spending state overall currently is California, with a massive $315.8 million. Ad spend is coming overwhelmingly for Tom Steyer, a billionaire businessman and Democrat running for governor, at $201.4 million.

Far behind Steyer is San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (at $35.1 million) while former U.S. Secretary of Health and former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is at $24.4 million.

AdImpact also says there has been a collective $31.6 million in advertising that attacks Steyer.

For just TV, Steyer has 161,000 airings across 61 pieces of unique TV ad creative, with ads also released in Spanish and Mandarin.

Looking at the month of May, California is the highest-spending state -- $189 million, followed by Georgia at $58.6 million and Texas with $52.7 million. There have been 646,000 TV airings in the U.S. overall.

The highest-spending markets are Los Angeles ($72.4 million), San Francisco ($31.2 million) and Atlanta ($30.4 million).