The $11.9 Billion Midterms: This Campaign Is Set to Be the Most Expensive Ever Recorded
More than $9.5 billion was already spent by mid-October, over half of it through PACs and Super PACs — and the single biggest donor, at almost half a billion dollars, outspent entire parties of cycles past.
The 2026 midterm campaign is set to be the most expensive election ever recorded in the United States, with total spending projected to reach nearly $12 billion, BBC Verify reported Monday, citing OpenSecrets, the independent organization that tracks campaign finance. The projected $11.9 billion is about 30 percent more than what was spent in the last midterm elections in 2022.
The money has moved early and through outside groups. According to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, which run to mid-October, more than $9.5 billion had already been spent in the cycle — and PACs and Super PACs account for more than half of it, about $5.5 billion, with their spending in the last couple of months almost doubling. Full totals will not be available until after the elections, because candidates, parties and outside groups report on a lag.
At the top of the donor table, the concentration is starker still. The top 40 donors gave $2.4 billion up to Oct. 14, according to the Brennan Center for Justice — a record high for that point in a midterm cycle. The largest individual donor is billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who has spent almost half a billion dollars backing Republican candidates, particularly in Texas, where many of his companies are based and where most of his money has gone to the Senate race.
'Spending in the 2026 midterms is shattering records, with more of the money coming from the wealthiest donors and groups this election,' campaign finance expert Michael Beckel said in the reporting. Advertising alone tells the same story: the tracking firm AdImpact recorded $11.15 billion in advertising expenditure through late October. When Floridians and Leon County voters cast the last ballots Tuesday night, they will be closing the most expensive midterm in American history — whatever it decides.
