Study
2026 midterm ad spending, by party and state.
Every dollar figure here is reported by Meta or Google, not estimated. Every party label links to an FEC record. Hover or tap any chart for the exact numbers.
The numbers
- Meta: $302.8M on 33,568 advertisers between 20 July and 17 October 2026. Democratic-aligned advertisers spent 20.3%, Republican-aligned 9.9%. 69.8% could not be tied to a party from FEC records (see How parties were labelled).
- Google: $838.7M across 5,648 advertisers from 1 January to 17 October 2026. The week of 2026-10-11 alone was $97.0M.
- Top Meta states by spend: California $34.7M, Texas $27.2M, Ohio $20.6M, Michigan $17.9M, Florida $16.3M.
Why is so much of it grey? Grey means we could not prove a party from public records, not that the money is hidden. Most of it falls into four kinds of advertiser:
- State and local campaigns. The FEC only covers federal races, so a governor's or mayor's party is not in its data. We added the biggest ones by hand, with sources.
- Advertisers with no party. Companies, charities and news outlets run "social issue" ads on Meta. They are in the report but have no party.
- Ballot measures. A yes or no campaign on a proposition takes a position, not a party.
- Advocacy groups with no party on file. The FEC lists the committee but records no party for it. We do not guess from a group's reputation.
So the blue and red shares are a minimum for each party, not the full picture. The table under How parties were labelled shows exactly what is in the grey, with dollar amounts.
Where the money lands
Each tile is a state. The coloured fill shows how that state's spend splits by party, from the bottom up: blue Democratic, red Republican, grey unclassified. Hover or tap a tile for exact dollars, shares, spend per resident and population. Use the buttons to switch between Meta and Google, to colour tiles by spend per resident instead of party, or to size each tile by its spend or its population (tile area is proportional, and the legend shows a reference size).
Google spending, week by week
Each band is one party's spend in that week, stacked. Move across the chart to read the exact amounts for any week.
Weekly totals are exact, as published by Google. Party shares use FEC-based labels, so the grey area is spend we could not place.
The biggest advertisers on Meta
Exact amounts from Meta's Ad Library Report, 20 July to 17 October 2026. Hover a bar for the legal payer and the FEC match behind its colour.
Who sees the ads
Meta publishes, for each ad group, the share of impressions that went to each age band and gender. These charts show those shares per party, not dollars.
- 33% of Democratic-aligned impressions go to people 65 and over, against 26% for Republican-aligned ads.
- Audience shares are the percentages Meta publishes per ad group. They are not dollar amounts. We weight each Page's audience by its exact Meta spend. The Pages we collected cover 67.2% of Democratic-aligned, 74.7% of Republican-aligned and 41.5% of unclassified Meta spend.
How parties were labelled
Party labels come only from US Federal Election Commission data. We do not guess from names. For each advertiser, in this order:
- Candidate committee. The advertiser's legal payer name matches an FEC committee that belongs to a candidate, and we take that candidate's party.
- Party code. It matches an FEC committee that carries a party code, such as the national party committees.
- Independent expenditures. It matches an FEC spender whose 2026 independent expenditures are at least 85% for one party's candidates or against the other's, on at least $25,000.
Names must match exactly after removing punctuation and endings such as Inc, apart from 2 pinned aliases where the same committee is named differently by Meta and the FEC. Anything else is Unclassified: ballot measures, state and local campaigns (which are not in FEC data), companies, charities, and committees with no party evidence.
For a handful of state and local candidates the FEC has no record, so we took party from Wikidata and linked each source in the evidence column. Spend with no party label is not a single bucket. Here is what it is made of, using the stated rules:
| Group | Meta spend | Share of Meta spend | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| No political committee found | $172,221,885 | 56.9% | No FEC committee matches the payer name. Mostly companies, charities, media outlets, and state or local campaigns and groups, which the FEC does not cover. |
| FEC-registered, no party on record | $28,541,072 | 9.4% | The payer is an FEC-registered committee, but the FEC records no party for it and its independent expenditures are not one-sided enough to label. |
| Ballot measure | $10,437,274 | 3.4% | The Page or payer name says it is a yes or no campaign on a ballot measure. These have a position, not a party. |
| Advertiser | Meta spend (exact) | Label | Method | FEC record | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Talarico | $5,526,333 | Democratic | FEC candidate committee | TALARICO FOR TEXAS | TALARICO, JAMES (DEM) |
| WinSenate | $4,900,705 | Democratic | FEC independent expenditures | WINSENATE | 100% of $170,689,236 2026 IE supports Democratic or opposes the other side |
| Abdul El-Sayed | $4,720,652 | Democratic | FEC candidate committee | ABDUL FOR U.S. SENATE | EL-SAYED, ABDUL (DEM) |
| Democrats | $4,573,175 | Democratic | FEC committee party code | DNC SERVICES CORP / DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE | DEM |
| America PAC | $4,565,750 | Republican | FEC independent expenditures | AMERICA PAC | 100% of $60,090,456 2026 IE supports Republican or opposes the other side |
| WorkMoney | $3,762,765 | Unclassified | FEC committee found, no party evidence | WORKMONEY | |
| One Nation | $3,381,224 | Unclassified | FEC committee found, no party evidence | ONE NATION | |
| Common Sense Voters Coalition | $3,089,983 | Republican | FEC independent expenditures | MAGA INC. | 100% of $36,181,395 2026 IE supports Republican or opposes the other side |
| Ground News | $3,049,609 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Kalshi - Trade the Headlines | $2,999,704 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Lower Costs Now | $2,585,945 | Democratic | FEC independent expenditures | LOWER COSTS NOW | 100% of $32,448,440 2026 IE supports Democratic or opposes the other side |
| Turning Point PAC | $2,483,827 | Republican | FEC independent expenditures | TURNING POINT PAC INC. | 100% of $287,299 2026 IE supports Republican or opposes the other side |
| Jon Ossoff | $2,381,977 | Democratic | FEC candidate committee | JON OSSOFF FOR SENATE | OSSOFF, T. JONATHAN (DEM) |
| No on 40: Protect Funding for Schools, Healthcare & Public Safety | $2,325,791 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Rep. Gina Hinojosa | $2,009,592 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Troy Jackson | $1,892,057 | Democratic | FEC candidate committee | TROY JACKSON FOR MAINE | JACKSON, TROY DALE (DEM) |
| Dale William | $1,586,357 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Shell USA | $1,547,841 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Vivek Ramaswamy | $1,495,060 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| JPMorganChase | $1,454,451 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Josh Shapiro | $1,354,162 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Team Ossoff | $1,345,822 | Democratic | FEC candidate committee | JON OSSOFF FOR SENATE | OSSOFF, T. JONATHAN (DEM) |
| Dan Patrick | $1,317,458 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| ACLU | $1,303,410 | Unclassified | FEC committee found, no party evidence | AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION INC. | |
| Dr. Annie Andrews | $1,296,252 | Democratic | FEC candidate committee | DR. ANNIE ANDREWS FOR SENATE | ANDREWS, ANNIE (DEM) |
| Texas PAC | $1,269,604 | Republican | FEC independent expenditures | TEXAS PAC | 100% of $148,574,806 2026 IE supports Republican or opposes the other side |
| Sherrod Brown | $1,268,304 | Democratic | FEC candidate committee | FRIENDS OF SHERROD BROWN | BROWN, SHERROD (DEM) |
| Tim Tebow | $1,264,339 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| MAHA Movie | $1,234,143 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| American Bridge 21st Century | $1,224,546 | Democratic | FEC independent expenditures | AB PAC | 100% of $40,188,663 2026 IE supports Democratic or opposes the other side |
| Brandon Gill | $1,216,111 | Republican | FEC candidate committee | BRANDON GILL FOR TEXAS | GILL, BRANDON (REP) |
| State + Local Election Alliance | $1,211,577 | Unclassified | FEC committee found, no party evidence | STATE + LOCAL ELECTION ALLIANCE | |
| Bruce Blakeman for Governor - Make New York Affordable | $1,203,866 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Elizabeth Miller | $1,174,514 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Tom Tiffany | $1,166,293 | Republican | FEC candidate committee | TIFFANY FOR WISCONSIN, INC. | TIFFANY, TOM (REP) |
| Daily Wire | $1,131,230 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Ground News | $1,125,200 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Wildfire Victims First | $1,079,513 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Sandy Hook Promise | $1,049,247 | Unclassified | no FEC committee match | ||
| Sherrod Brown Let Us Down | $1,025,670 | Republican | FEC independent expenditures | SLF PAC | 100% of $250,202,805 2026 IE supports Republican or opposes the other side |
Top 40 Meta advertisers. The full list, with every label, is in the downloads below.
Cross-check against FEC
The FEC records independent expenditures, including payments to Meta and Google. Where a committee paid a platform directly, we compare that with what the platform reports for the same committee and window. Many committees pay through consultants, so most advertisers have no direct counterpart, and a mismatch does not mean the platform figure is wrong. We do not use FEC numbers for any headline figure.
| Committee | Platform and window | Platform reports | FEC payments to platform | Ratio | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win It Back PAC | Google, 2026 | $1,909,500 | $1,839,002 | 0.96 | Matches within 15% |
| Alabama Freedom Fund | Google, 2026 | $760,900 | $648,497 | 0.85 | Matches within 15% |
| Club for Growth Action | Google, 2026 | $748,600 | $1,354,425 | 1.81 | Does not match |
| GROWUSA | Google, 2026 | $393,900 | $200,000 | 0.51 | Does not match |
| RED SENATE | Google, 2026 | $295,400 | $267,494 | 0.91 | Matches within 15% |
| WelcomePAC | Google, 2026 | $157,200 | $3,000 | 0.02 | Does not match |
| COMMON GROUND COALITION PAC | Google, 2026 | $96,600 | $118,351 | 1.23 | Does not match |
| Defending Utah Values Federal Super PAC | Google, 2026 | $34,700 | $12,000 | 0.35 | Does not match |
| Restoration of America Pac | Meta, 20 Jul to 17 Oct | $276,887 | $90,000 | 0.33 | Does not match |
| Grow USA | Meta, 20 Jul to 17 Oct | $57,463 | $200,000 | 3.48 | Does not match |
| Texans for Conservative Values | Meta, 20 Jul to 17 Oct | $26,572 | $24,746 | 0.93 | Matches within 15% |
| Common Ground Coalition | Meta, 20 Jul to 17 Oct | $9,355 | $10,936 | 1.17 | Does not match |
| 32BJ SEIU | Meta, 20 Jul to 17 Oct | $5,718 | $42,300 | 7.40 | Does not match |
| Nebraska Freedom and Liberty Super PAC | Meta, 20 Jul to 17 Oct | $5,439 | $8,500 | 1.56 | Does not match |
Sources and tools
| Source | Used for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Meta Ad Library Report, US, last 90 days | Exact spend per advertiser and per state | facebook.com/ads/library/report |
| Meta Ad Library, political and issue ads | Audience age and gender shares per ad group | facebook.com/ads/library |
| Google Political Ads Transparency Report (BigQuery) | Exact weekly spend per advertiser, and spend per state | transparencyreport.google.com |
| FEC bulk data, 2026 cycle | Committees, candidates and independent expenditures, for party labels and cross-checks | fec.gov |
The audience data was collected with the Ads Transparency Scraper (Meta source, political ad type, audience breakdown on). The exact spend figures come straight from Meta's and Google's own reports.
What is exact and what is not. Exact: all Meta spend by advertiser and state (Meta's report), all Google weekly spend (Google's report), and Google spend by state for the 63% of Google spend from advertisers whose spend is entirely in 2026. Shares, not dollars: the age and gender charts. Ranges, not exact: Meta's ad-level spend in the ad-level file, which Meta only publishes as a lower and upper bound. Not covered: Meta spend before 20 July (the report only offers 90 days), and ads Meta does not classify as political or issue ads. Meta notes its figures can differ slightly from Ads Manager and may be estimates for ads still running.
Download the data
- Meta advertisers, exact spend, party label and FEC evidence (CSV)
- Meta spend by state and party, exact (CSV)
- Google advertisers, exact 2026 spend, party label and FEC evidence (CSV)
- Google spend by state and party, exact (CSV)
- State and local candidates: party and source links (CSV)
- Google weekly US political spend, exact (CSV)
- Meta ad level: spend and impression ranges, audience by age, gender and state (CSV, gzipped)
- Cross-check: Google vs FEC (CSV) and Meta vs FEC (CSV)