Expensive Negativity

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Oct. 31, 2026

We can all be grateful the depressingly negative political ads will now mercifully stop.
Every year they get worse and worse, and this year many candidates have decided to simply manufacture their own accomplishments or create imaginary flaws in their opponents. There are neither communists nor Nazis seeking office, but candidates have been accused of being both.

As the bile flowed, so did the money. This will be the most expensive midterm election in history with more than $11 billion spent by Election Day, according to AdImpact. Democrats are raising and spending more from the campaigns directly, but Republicans are benefiting far more from outside spending not directly connected to campaigns.

Thanks to multiple Supreme Court rulings, campaign contributions and financing is now an economic wild west. The 2010 Citizens United decision nearly eliminated restrictions on corporate, union, and special interest associations giving to independent expenditure campaigns. Additional rulings said much of those contributions could be anonymous. So the very rich can now contribute unlimited amounts of cash and stay anonymous.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, more than $2 billion in “dark money,” anonymously contributed money, has poured into this year’s campaigns, more than $1.3 billion for Republicans and $800 million for Democrats. (These numbers are only valid through Aug. 15, so likely have ballooned since then.)

Other wealthy individuals are at least a bit more transparent. For example, Elon Musk has contributed nearly $366 million to his own political action committee (PAC) and super PAC to support Republican candidates in multiple races. That dwarfs the $103 million contributed by George Soros, his family members, and various associated organizations to Democratic candidates.

Unfortunately, Michigan has not escaped the profligate campaign spending. Bridge Michigan reports $243 million in spending for our U.S. Senate race between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers though the Detroit News puts the figure at $270 million with a whopping $173 million coming from sources outside the campaigns. El-Sayed has raised more directly within the campaign, but Rogers has benefited from a nearly 2 to 1 advantage in outside spending.

Our gubernatorial race, by comparison, is practically a bargain basement affair with a scant $50 million spent, according to the Michigan Information and Research Service (MIRS). The biggest spender, and he spent his own money, was Perry Johnson, who accounted for nearly $30 million of the gubernatorial race spending. By comparison, Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee, has raised $16.7 million and still has millions in the bank and Republican nominee John James has raised $12.4 million but has spent more and is short on cash reserves. (It should be noted that Perry Johnson has spent $65 million of his own money in three Quixotic attempts at statewide office, and says he will not run again.)

In addition to the financial excesses, the tone has been every bit as heinous as we have come to expect.

Normal attacks morphed into outright lies, and there was no depth to which some candidates, of either party, were unwilling to stoop. The most offensive, by far, was in the Ohio gubernatorial race in which GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy created an ad using his opponent’s own mother to call her a liar. That Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, accused her stepfather of raping her when she was 12. Almost everybody, including the police and her siblings, believed her and there was forensic evidence to boot. But Mom chose to believe her husband and now calls her daughter, to whom she has not spoken since 1978, a liar. Stepdad fled to avoid an arrest warrant and stayed on the lam until his death in 2004. Ramaswamy and his friend the president think it’s just fine to further victimize someone who was allegedly raped at 12.

Predictions are foolish, but there are some we can boldly make.

First, it is unlikely the Republicans will do as poorly as some are now predicting; surely some of these races in bright red states will tip back to Republicans. Democrats should have a very good election, but they won’t win every race they seem to be leading as this is being written. Partisan voters have a way of returning to their party of choice no matter how badly their party’s candidates have misbehaved.

Second, Donald Trump will claim fraud and cheating regardless of the outcome. His Department of Justice has already filed suit preemptively in Alaska—not because there is evidence of voter fraud, but because what they claim is candidate fraud. There is an Independent named Dan J. Sullivan, Jr., on the ballot running against the incumbent Republican named Dan S. Sullivan and a Democrat, Mary Peltola. One suspects Alaskans will figure it out.

Raw America reports the administration plans to legally challenge every federal race Republicans lose, which will make for some busy courts. On we go.