Paroma Soni and Aaron Pellish 10/29/2026, 8:00 AM EDT

The $800M bet on an affordability election

Campaigns and outside groups have spent more than $800 million in political ads focusing on the number one issue on voters’ minds: affordability.

In Senate, House and gubernatorial campaigns and national messaging campaigns, more than $801 million has been spent on nearly 10,000 affordability-themed ads, according to a POLITICO analysis of primarily TV ad data from ad-tracking firm AdImpact. That represents roughly half of all ad spending by Democrats and nearly one-third of Republican ads focusing on the rising cost of living.

About $551 million in ad spending on affordability was in Senate and House races, out of which about two-thirds — or $354 million — was tied to competitive races, driven largely by spending in battleground states with multiple major media markets.…