The 2026 midterm elections have been on voters’ – and politicians’ – minds for months, as the Republican Party seeks to maintain control of the House and Senate, and the Democrats fight to flip one or both chambers.

By most reports this is the most expensive midterm year on record, with the Federal Election Commission listing over $1.2 billion in direct spending on Senate campaigns and over $2 billion spent on House races. That’s on top of the billions that political action committees and other outside groups also pour into media buys, advertising and other support for these races; one estimate places ad spending at upward of $10 billion in total.

In comparison, promo spend is still a drop in the bucket, but that doesn’t mean the election isn’t having an impact on the promo industry, or that candidates aren’t prioritizing it as an effective means of reaching voters.

According to an exclusive Counselor analysis of FEC campaign filings, candidates running for the House and Senate spent upward of $17.7 million on promotional products and signage as of June 30, 2026. Add another $3.1 million in Q3 from the top 15 promo spenders in each chamber, and the impact of these federal races on promo well surpasses $20 million. (The FEC hasn’t fully processed data from Q3 as of this writing.)

As politics in the U.S. has grown more polarizing, campaign merchandise is just one vehicle for voters to put the issues they’re passionate about on display. Promo like yard signs – which were Counselor’s 2024 Product of the Year – have been shown to have a small but measurable impact on voters and election results, particularly for local races. And merchandise spending is not exclusively tied to the competitiveness of a race or how much a candidate spends overall on their campaign.

“We’re having our best year ever,” says Steve Grubbs, founder of Iowa-based distributor VictoryStore.com (asi/352041). “Due to the heightened level of confrontation and conflict in politics, more people are getting involved, more candidates are running and people are spending more on campaigns.”

Senate Top Spenders

Among the 10 Senate candidates who spent the most on promo, seven were Democrats compared to just three Republicans.

Take for example Texas State Rep. James Talarico, who won the Democratic nomination for Senate in Texas after a competitive primary with Rep. Jasmine Crockett. In his quest to defeat his Republican opponent Ken Paxton and flip one of Texas’ Senate seats, he’s become one of the top-spending candidates in this election cycle, as part of one of the most expensive congressional races ever.

Out of the roughly $114 million Talarico’s campaign has spent as of the end of Q3, at least $2.6 million was spent on campaign promo, largely through Bumperactive (asi/150095). It’s the most midterm campaign promo spending of any single candidate, representing about 2.3% of his overall campaign spending.

That’s nearly seven times what Sen. Jon Ossoff, who’s running for reelection in Georgia and has spent the most overall of any Senate candidate at $125 million, is estimated to have spent on promo: about $380,000.

Interestingly, the top Republican Senate spender on promo based on Counselor’s analysis, Ashley Hinson, ranks 42nd for overall campaign spending, but fourth for promo spend. Her total estimated promo spend comes in around $270,000, or about 20% of her overall campaign spend thus far. Hinson’s race is anticipated to be one of the more competitive in this election cycle, with polls split between Hinson and her Democratic opponent, Josh Turek.

Also of note: Two of the top promo spenders in Senate races are no longer in contention. Graham Platner, a military veteran and political upstart who won the Democratic primary for the Maine Senate seat that’s up for election, subsequently withdrew from the race after facing a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend. John Fleming, the current state treasurer in Louisiana, ran for election to the Senate, but lost in the Republican primary runoff.

It’s worth reiterating again that these figures only account for direct spending by the candidate campaign committees themselves, not any additional spending from large PACs – think WinRed for Republicans and ActBlue for Democrats – or outside donors. A significant portion of the advertising for Talarico’s opponent Paxton, for example, has been booked through the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside group affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and its Texas PAC, largely funded by Elon Musk.

“If [candidates] are spending much more digitally, they’re probably spending less on swag, unless it’s something where they could make some money for their campaign,” says Bruce Kolbrener, executive VP of sales at Quinn Flags (asi/80228). “We’ve seen less activity … this season than we have in the past.”

Overall, though, across highly competitive House and Senate races, it’s rare that both the Democratic and Republican candidates are top promo spenders. Georgia’s race between Ossoff and Republican Mike Collins and Alaska’s race between Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican Dan Sullivan come closest: Both Republican campaigns finished just outside the top 10 for estimated promo spending.

Top House Spenders

The majority of top-spending Senate candidates – both overall and on promo – are in highly competitive races. Among top House spenders, the picture is quite different.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the second-highest House candidate spender both overall and on promo, even though she didn’t face a competitive primary and is not likely to lose her New York seat in November. (She has, however, been rumored to be a 2028 presidential candidate.) As of Sept. 30, she had spent roughly $600,000 on campaign promo.

The top-spending House candidate on promo also comes from New York: Anthony Constantino, the staunchly pro-Trump Republican candidate for New York’s 21st Congressional District and the CEO of online print company Sticker Mule. Constantino founded Sticker Mule after running his family’s print company, former Counselor Top 40 supplier Noteworthy, which he eventually acquired. (His mother, Carol Constantino, is a former Counselor Woman of Distinction.)

His company’s direct connection to the industry puts him in a unique position for promo spending, as his campaign is entirely self-funded, with merchandise, web services, rent and some media production all funneled through Sticker Mule. Through Sept. 30, his campaign had spent close to $800,000 on promo, largely on “supporter gifts” – likely the free T-shirts offered through his website. Nearly half a million of that spend came from the third quarter as the NY-21 race grew more competitive than initially anticipated.

Bobby Pulido, an award-winning Tejano singer, actor and local celebrity, has also leaned into promo, with roughly $250,000 spent in his attempt to flip his South Texas district blue, particularly by appealing to Latino voters. His merch includes “Cowgirls for Bobby” T-shirts, as well as a “Make Quinceañeras Great Again” hat in reference to his campaign strategy of guest singing at local quinceañeras to drum up support.

As in the Senate races, some top House promo spenders are no longer in contention. Larry Rubin, for example, is a Mexican-American businessman who ran a largely self-funded campaign for Texas’ 38th Congressional District before losing the Republican primary. His estimated $200,000 in promo spend – largely on signage – before the primaries represented roughly 40% of his total campaign disbursements.

What Candidates Are Spending On

Grubbs, who served as a member of the Iowa legislature before founding VictoryStore.com, cites yard signs as one of the big reasons why he unseated the incumbent when he first ran. He says if candidates do the math on cost-per-impression, physical promo like yard signs tends to be more efficient, especially with local races.

“[Voters] saw so many yard signs that they said, ‘Wow, this is a competitive race,’ and it opened their minds up to consider voting for me,” Grubbs says. “Your reach for a physical sign is dramatically broader and less expensive.”

Based on Counselor’s analysis, more than $7 million in House and Senate candidates’ promo spending this election cycle went toward yard signs or signage. When additional print items like flyers and direct mail are factored in, Counselor’s initial $20 million approximation essentially doubles.

While FEC data for the midterms strictly covers House and Senate races, there are thousands of other local races on the ballot for Americans on Election Day, and it’s often these races that, collectively, make up a significant chunk of political promo spend every year, promo pros say.

Grubbs adds that there really hasn’t been a down year in campaign promo sales, noting that much of the spending has shifted to nonprofits and issue advocacy organizations as opposed to official candidate committees.

Some candidates only order a finite amount of merch and won’t reorder if it sells out, says Mitch Cahn, founder of Unionwear (asi/73775), likening the process to the way popular streetwear brand Supreme used to do their apparel drops. And other campaigns don’t give away merch for free at events or sell it in a store – they only give away promo to those who volunteer.

This can create an air of exclusivity around promo that can help drive attention toward campaigns, but it also works best when the promo is well thought out and the candidate is likable. Cahn, whose company is based in Newark, NJ, says New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign leveraged campaign merch in a similar way, and toward the end of his campaign, part of the momentum was surrounded by the exclusivity and the cool factor of his signs, shirts and hats.

Another trend that Kolbrener has noticed is that distributors increasingly want niche print and promo items made, citing an order Quinn Flags fulfilled for a candidate banner that wraps around a trash can at a rally.

“You can really brand or message on any object,” he says.