Spending in the 2026 midterms is shattering records, with more of the money coming from the wealthiest donors and groups this election.
The US midterms campaign is on course to be the most expensive on record, with total spending projected to reach nearly $12bn, according to Open Secrets, an independent organisation that tracks campaign finance. The BBC reports that the figure would be roughly 30% more than was spent during the last midterms in 2022. Election day is 3 November.
The driving force is not the candidates themselves but outside political groups. Super Political Action Committees, or Super Pacs, can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labour unions and other political committees. They cannot give that money directly to candidates, but they can spend it supporting them indirectly. According to Federal Election Commission filings running to mid-October, more than $9.5bn had already been spent this cycle, with Pacs and Super Pacs accounting for about $5.5bn of that. Their spending almost doubled in the final couple of months.
The concentration of money is striking. The top 40 donors had given $2.4bn up to 14 October, a record high for that point in a midterms cycle, according to the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice. The single largest individual donor is the billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who has given almost half a billion dollars backing Republican candidates, much of it to a Super Pac he set up in 2024 called America PAC and to the Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund. Most of his money has gone into the Texas Senate race, supporting the Republican candidate Ken Paxton against the Democrat James Talarico; America PAC's investment in that race alone totals more than $45m. It has also put around $10m into each of the Senate races in Michigan and Ohio.
Musk is not alone. The financier George Soros's Geosor Corp and Fund for Policy Reform have given a combined $102m to liberal groups, while the former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has given more than $60m to Democratic causes. On the Republican side, Jeff Yass and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein have each given over $100m, according to FEC filings. Crypto companies have also been active, with Ripple and Coinbase combining to give $63m to Super Pacs promoting the industry's interests. "Spending in the 2026 midterms is shattering records, with more of the money coming from the wealthiest donors and groups this election," Michael Beckel, a US campaign finance expert, told the BBC.
What this means for the outcome is not yet clear. Money buys advertising, staffing, polling and rallies, but its effect on votes is contested, and the full totals will not be confirmed until after the election. What the filings do show is a shift in where influence sits: away from parties and candidates and towards a small number of very wealthy individuals and the committees they fund. The projected $11.9bn figure is itself a projection based on past trends, not a final count, and the FEC totals will only be known once the cycle closes.
