Advertising
AdImpact Reveals 2026 Election Cycle to Reach Record $11.6 Billion in Ad Spending
AdImpact
“Connected television continues its ascent as the fastest-growing media type in political advertising, with AdImpact revising its projection from $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion, maintaining its 23% share of total cycle spending.”
Priorities USA Will Spend $30 Million To Define JD Vance and Marco Rubio
NOTUS
“In a memo accompanying the ad buy launch, Priorities USA argued that more than 40 percent of voters don’t seek out political content, but still ingest it passively through social media — a disconnect Democrats struggled to overcome during the 2024 election.”
Campaigns
Endorsements Probably Still Matter in Primary Elections. Here’s Why That’s Important.
VoteHub
“Among the top 80 candidates by Endorsement Percentage, 56 won their primary outright, and another ten advanced to a runoff election.”
Why Prediction Markets’ Election Picks Are Useful, Even When They Seem Wrong
Washington Post
“Generally, candidates in each group won about as often as the predictions said they would. Candidates predicted to win with 95 percent probability won almost all the time. Those given a 50 percent chance of winning won about half the time.”
Fundraising
House Republicans Threaten to Hold ActBlue in Contempt
Campaigns & Elections
“The contempt threat marks the latest escalation in congressional Republicans’ probe into whether ActBlue illegally processed political donations from foreign nationals.”
International
The Opposite of America’s AI Problem is Happening in Brazil
Katie Harbath
“The underlying rules are already detailed: deepfakes in campaign material are banned outright, AI-generated content has to be labeled, AI tools can’t rank or recommend candidates, and there’s a blackout on AI-altered content from 72 hours before voting until polls close.”
Social Media
$35M Campaign Finance Fine Against Meta Upheld by WA Supreme Court
Washington State Standard
“Meta’s argument that the disclosure law reduces the amount of political speech available to the public misconstrues the purpose of the disclosure law, which is to facilitate election transparency, not to ensure a proliferation of political advertisements.”
Technology
The World’s Leading Deepfake Expert No Longer Trusts His Own Eyes
New York Times
“Farid’s own research had proven that most people could no longer distinguish a real photograph from a digital creation, a real voice from an A.I. clone, a real video clip from a wholesale fabrication.”
AI is Not an ‘I Win’ Button
Colin Delany
“For campaigns, AI can help a small team fight at the same level as a much larger one, and it can help a larger one get even more done.”
AI Deepfakes Are Getting Weirder and Harder to Spot in the Midterms
Wall Street Journal
“Political campaigns are employing artificial intelligence in a range of campaign ads to elevate candidates and attack opponents, fueling concerns that the wave of fake content will undermine the midterm elections.”