Media Justice Network report tracks election money and 11 ad fact-check cases
Media Justice Network has released a report on money and media influence in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, bringing together spending figures and 11 specific ad cases examined by fact-checking organizations and newsrooms. Five concern ads against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. The bilingual report draws on 17 published sources.
Citing OpenSecrets, the report says total midterm spending is projected to reach a record $11.9 billion. It separately cites nearly $1.47 billion in contributions from donors whose original funding sources are not publicly disclosed to outside spending groups, above the $1.35 billion recorded for the 2024 cycle. The report describes that figure as a lower bound, not a final total.
The report distinguishes between different measures of partisan spending: Republican-aligned outside groups lead in outside spending, while Democratic candidates lead in candidate spending. It says the figures cover different categories and periods and cannot be combined into one party share. It also cites leadership-aligned dark-money groups supporting super PACs on both sides.
Its ad case files include findings by FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, CNN and Bridge Michigan. The five El-Sayed cases cover ads by the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project during Michigan's Democratic primary and ads by Republican groups or the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the general-election campaign. They concern claims about women, voting uncommitted in 2024, policing, prisons and an excerpt from his speech calling himself dangerous to powerful interests.
The report preserves distinctions in those findings: PolitiFact rated the uncommitted-vote ad Half True, while Bridge Michigan found parts of a policing ad misleading but also documented El-Sayed's past support for defunding police. It says an attack ad is not misleading by default, the cases are examples rather than a party-by-party count, and the cited fact-checks do not connect those ads to the $1.47 billion in dark contributions. MJN says it relied on published findings and did not view the ads itself.
The report follows the network's Election Day statement, which cited projected record midterm spending and said voters have a right to know who is paying to influence them. The statement separately cited AFP reporting that super PACs spend most of their money on attack ads.
