Dem
54
Ties
2
GOP
44
The research organization OpenSecrets projects that $11.9 billion was spent on the 2026 midterms, the most ever. It cost $1.7 billion more than #2, 2022, after correcting for inflation. And what did that spending achieve, besides a lot of hate?
This record occurred due to highly motivated billionaires, corporations (remember, corporations are people), and a completely broken regulatory system. Direct corporate contributions were $654 billion (excluding dark money) and Elon Musk's personal contributions were $446 million, an unparalleled amount for a single donor. Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center, a voting rights group, said while megadonors are not new, having one individual exert so much influence over an election is unheard of. He also said that the problem with all that money is not what happens on Election Day, but what happens afterwards. Many donors want something fairly specific from the government and buying your very own congressman or senator is a good start.
Direct corporate spending has skyrocketed since the 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision, which allowed corporations and unions to use their own funds for political purposes. Among the big corporate spenders are Coinbase, a crypto exchange; two sports bookies, DraftKings and FanDuel; tobacco company Altria; oil companies Chevron and Occidental Petroleum; health insurance giant UnitedHealth and private prison company GEO Group. Needless to say, these corporations are not donating millions of dollars to candidates to support good government. They have some very specific legislation and regulatory goals in place. Guess where most of their contributions went? Yup, Donald Trump's private slush fund, MAGA, Inc., which allows Trump to spend it as he wishes.
Another big problem with the campaigns is the role of AI. It is being used to generate photos of nonexistent events and videos that show candidates saying and doing things they never said or did. There is currently no federal law regulating (fake) AI-generated ads, or even a law requiring AI-generated ads to be disclosed as such. Voters are also turning to AI bots for information about the candidates, so the person or company training the bots can greatly influence what they learn and thus what they tell voters.
The Federal Election Commission is required to police campaign finance law, but it has not functioned since May 2025 because it does not have enough commissioners. Currently there are two Democratic commissioners but no Republicans. Donald Trump has nominated two Republicans, but the Senate has refused to take up their confirmations. The FEC has received hundreds of complaints about election law being violated, but without a quorum of four commissioners, it can't take any action, not even simple things like requiring influencers on social media to publicly state that they are paid pitchmen and pitchwomen and requiring fake AI-generated photos and ads to be labeled as such. It is completely impotent, and apparently some people prefer it that way. (V)