The 2026 midterms have become the most expensive in American history, with roughly $11.21 billion already spent or reserved on political advertising as of the campaign's final week, according to tracking firm AdImpact. That edges past the full $11.2 billion spent across the entire 2024 election cycle and runs roughly $2.3 billion ahead of the 2022 midterms — a record set with votes still being cast.

Republicans have held a modest edge in the spending arms race, putting roughly $5.18 billion behind their candidates and causes compared to $4.77 billion for Democrats, per AdImpact's tracking. Senate races have swallowed the largest single share of the money, with nearly $3.4 billion projected to go toward those contests alone, and broadcast television remains the dominant battleground, expected to account for roughly $5.6 billion of all spending. Texas has become the single most expensive non-presidential race in U.S. history, with more than $560 million in advertising spending and reservations, while Ohio's Senate race is shaping up as 2026's priciest midterm contest.

Closing arguments from two former presidents

The spending surge has come alongside an unusually visible closing stretch from two men who aren't on any ballot themselves. President Trump has rallied in nearly two dozen states this cycle, framing Tuesday's vote as a referendum on his administration, while former President Obama has made a more selective but pointed set of stops in Ohio, Michigan and Georgia, casting the election as Democrats' "last best chance" to check the White House. Obama has sharpened his attacks in the campaign's final days, hitting Trump over the Iran conflict, the cost of living and White House renovation spending.

OUR LAST BEST CHANCE

With Republicans holding a 53-47 Senate majority heading into the vote and 35 seats up for grabs, control of both chambers is genuinely in play, and the cost of living has emerged as the defining issue of the campaign's closing days in poll after poll. Early voting has also shattered records: the University of Florida's Election Lab had counted more than 57 million early ballots cast as of the campaign's final days, well above the nearly 46 million recorded at the same point in the 2022 midterms.

Polls open across the country Tuesday morning, with results in the most competitive Senate and governor's races likely to take hours — or in some states, days — to resolve as mail and provisional ballots are counted.