Michigan political campaigns could spend more than $900 million on advertising during the 2026 midterm cycle, according to the advertising analysis firm AdImpact. That would make Michigan the second-most expensive state in the country after California.by AdImpact finds.
In a recent report, the company said that's because of Michigan's competitive gubernatorial and Senate races as well as state legislative races in districts that are considered toss-ups, and a number of strongly contested downballot races. It’s also part of a larger national picture: The 2026 midterm is expected to be the most expensive in U.S. history, according to AdImpact, easily surpassing the $8.9 billion spent for the 2022 midterm.
Democratic U.S. Senator Gary Peters is retiring, leaving his seat open in the midterms. Neil Thanedar, the executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, said the Michigan Senate race might see the most total spending, including all political action committee, or PAC, spending.
One of five “toss-up” gubernatorial races in 2026, as classified by the Cook Political Ratings, Michigan’s gubernatorial spending is projected to rank highest among U.S. states at $152 million. Combined, the five toss-up states are expected to accumulate one-third of all gubernatorial campaign spending, according to AdImpact.
Michigan is one of seven states expected to exceed $50 million in state legislative spending, registering as the second-highest at $56.9 million. Thanedar expects millions of dollars to be spent on ads against Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, a ballot proposal looking to ban major contractors from making political contributions.
“Those major contractors … control some of the largest PACs in the state, and so I think they would spend in order to protect their ability to continue to spend in the future,” Thanedar said. “That’s a key existential issue for them.”
Along with that, Thanedar also said he thinks the Ranked Choice voting proposal and the Michigan Prohibit Property Taxes Amendment could see high ad spending due to their controversiality.
Thanedar expects the spending trend to continue to increase on both the state and national levels.
While most spending will occur between the primary and general elections with spending amping up four to eight weeks prior to the election, Thanedar pointed out that he’s already seeing advertisements.
“The fact that there's outside spending happening already in congressional races in 2025 for 2026 races is unusual,” Thanedar said. “These things are happening earlier and earlier.”
