Party committees’ newfound ability to coordinate spending with candidates might come at the detriment of television stations’ profit margins.
Late last month, the Supreme Court struck down the limit on coordinated spending between party committees and candidates in a 6-3 ruling in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission. Whereas before the ruling, committees could spend between $63,000 and $3.9 million in coordination with candidates, depending on the state and office sought, committees can now spend an unlimited amount.
The bulk of that will likely go toward television ad spending, the most expensive venture for the majority of campaigns. The changing financial dynamic could affect the way candidates, committees, and independent spenders approach their media strategy, media consultants and political strategists told National Journal.
“There were two campaigns in every battleground district or state, one that could talk to the candidate and one that couldn’t,” Democratic media consultant Martin Hamburger said. “A lot of that duplication goes away.”
Candidates’ TV ad dollars go further than those of super PACs.
The Federal Communications Commission ruled that broadcast stations must give candidates their lowest unit rate for advertising spots. Now that campaign committees can contribute more of their war chests directly to candidates, they will likely be able to purchase more ad spots.
“This is a net loss of revenue for TV stations and a net gain of advertising impressions for candidates,” OnMessage co-founder Brad Todd said.
Campaigns, committees, and outside groups spent nearly $11 billion on advertising in the 2024 cycle. The nonpartisan ad-tracking firm AdImpact projects even more than that, $11.6 billion, will be spent during the 2026 election cycle. Party committees didn’t form independent-expenditure units for the 2026 cycle in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
But nothing is set in stone yet. The idea of committees having access to the cheaper candidate rate is still up for debate. The FCC issued guidance in March saying both committees and candidates are eligible for broadcasters’ lowest unit rates. After the Court ruling, which did not weigh in on the debate, Democrats filed suit against the FCC and the NRSC, arguing that the rate only applies to candidates and not to committees. That lawsuit is pending.
Republicans currently hold a massive cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts. The NRSC, the Republican National Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee reported a total of $277.1 million on hand at the end of June, compared to Democrats’ combined $136.3 million over the same period, not accounting for the Democratic National Committee’s $18.5 million debt.
Should committees increase their ad spending, broadcasters could raise the actual dollar amount of the lowest unit rate they offer candidates.
“If there’s more demand, that lowest rate is going to be higher,” said David Oxenford, a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer specializing in broadcast law. “It’s a matter of supply and demand.”
Regardless of cost, broadcast ad space is limited, especially in battleground states where there may be a number of contested races up and down the ballot.
“Some of these states, there’s literally no inventory as you come up toward the end of the election,” Oxenford said. “There’s no spots left to buy because not only do you have the federal candidates, but you’ve got state and local candidates buying time, and you’ve got commercial advertisers who still want to get on the air.”
Where committees definitely do not have an advantage is in “connected TV”—television broadcast through streaming platforms like YouTube and Hulu. Consumers are gravitating toward connected TV and cutting their cable cords, which is driving momentum away from traditional broadcast television and could further complicate the advertising ecosystem.
“The gravitational pull away from broadcast is just something that’s been happening for a while,” Democratic strategist Kelsi Browning said.
“I don’t think it’s going to go away overnight, but I think it’s a general trend that’s been happening and will continue to happen,” she added.
Connected TV allows ad buyers to select their audience, filtering by age, location, and political affiliation. Buyers can also view which ads viewers see, allowing them to place candidates’ ads immediately after ads for their opponents.
“People still watch a lot of TV, but [connected TV] is growing, and cable is plummeting in real time,” Hamburger said. “You can watch the line go down.”
