BREWER, ME − Peter Howe hears a similar complaint from voters across the political spectrum while canvassing for Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson with the Maine AFL-CIO.
"The TV, radio, our phones, our mailboxes are just full of mailers and attack ads," Howe told USA TODAY while knocking on doors in Brewer, deep in the state's more conservative 2nd Congressional District. "I think it leaves a lot of people both feeling really, not just exhausted, but also leaves people not knowing what to believe."
Maine voters are being inundated with political ads, as record-setting midterm election spending floods the small state.
In the general election, nearly $218 million total in broadcast ads is earmarked for the Senate race as five-term Republican
Sen. Susan Collins runs for reelection against Jackson, the former state Senate president, according to Oct. 28 data from AdImpact. It's one of the most-watched races in the country, as Collins is the only Republican running for reelection in a state that President Donald Trump lost in 2024.
The total makes it one of the most expensive general election Senate races in the country after Ohio, Texas, Michigan and Iowa. But Maine's 2020 population of 1.36 million is considerably smaller than those states, with Texas's population of 29.15 million, and Iowa's 3.19 million.
A USA TODAY analysis of the AdImpact data and census data found Maine has the highest broadcast ad spending per person of any of the competitive Senate races.
Maine sees more spending per person than other key states
The 2026 midterm elections are shaping up to be the most expensive election cycle in U.S. history. Ad intelligence firm AdImpact tracks TV broadcast political advertisements across the competitive elections defined as "toss-up," "lean" or "likely" by the Cook Political Report. It found Republicans are outspending Democrats by $305 million across the competitive Senate races in the general election.
In Maine, the nearly $218 million earmarked in ad money works out to about $160 dollars per person, compared to $42 per person in Ohio, $14 per person in Texas and $74 per person in Iowa. The only state where ad spending is over $100 per person is Alaska, another sparsely populated state Democrats have targeted, at $140 per person. TV ad spending does not include the mailers, radio or social media ads people may be getting.
Even though not everyone watches broadcast television, the effects are widely felt.
"I think a good assumption is that the more money that's spent does mean people will see more ads,” said Michael Franz, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project and government professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. “Especially…if you’re watching the local news on TV, for instance? Yeah, you’re going to see a lot of it."
In line with the trend in races across the country, total ad spending backing Collins at $126.1 million outpaces spending for Jackson at $89.7 million, according to AdImpact.
Negative ads leave voters feeling 'scolded through the TV'
A week out from Election Day, the political ads during the primetime showing of "Dancing with the Stars" were obvious with their dramatic music and accusatory voice. Two ads for the Senate race played back-to-back, one against Collins raising corruption allegations from a Sept. 22 ProPublica report, and one against Jackson saying he was worse for public safety. A third played immediately after against the 2nd Congressional District House candidate, former Republican Governor Paul LePage.
Democrat-leaning ads focus on Trump, healthcare and abortion, while Republican leaning ads focus on healthcare, special interests and taxation, according to an Oct. 14 AdImpact report.
"Taxin' Jackson" is one common refrain in ads by Pine Tree Results PAC, which has spent nearly $27.5 million against the Democratic candidates in the state, according to OpenSecrets. An ad from the Jackson campaign cast Collins as the "majority maker," for Trump's agenda, a key talking point in his race.
Tracey Grover, 64, answered her door in Brewer for Howe on Oct. 15. She identifies as a political independent, and wouldn't say who she is supporting in the Senate race, but said it felt like she was choosing between the "lesser of two evils." She, like others, said she was sick of the ads. In a follow-up interview, she said she mostly watches TV through the Roku, where any two-minute commercial break is entirely taken up by political ads. Along with getting between five and 15 fliers in her mailbox every day, she said the ads are starting to feel "like a form of harassment."
"It's the same ones over and over and over again," Grover told USA TODAY. "There's nothing new. It's all just the slam somebody else, slam somebody else...it's nothing productive."
Hannah Ritter, 31, lives in Gorham, located in the southern, more liberal, part of the state. She agreed the ads are unhelpful in addressing the concerns of voters today and the candidates' plans to handle them. She said while watching football games, there is at least one political ad in every commercial break, most of them negative.
"I feel like I'm being scolded through the TV," Ritter said. "It's a turnoff as a voter, no matter what way I lean, no matter what way I feel."
Voters upset at ads sponsored by outside groups as Mainers struggle
Affordability in Maine, like the rest of the country, has been a central topic for the midterm elections. Maine has the lowest median income of the New England states. As the leaves fall and frosts appear, the cost of heating oil becomes a growing concern after increasing by about 80% compared to the same time last year. Jackson blames the war in Iran for throttling the global supply of oil, and Collins has blamed Jackson's leadership in the legislature for driving up electricity costs.
For some Mainers interviewed by USA TODAY, the money being spent on the ads feels wasteful, especially in the face of residents' financial struggles.
"The money that's sweeping the state of Maine, it's just unrecognizable," said John Dieffenbacher-Krall at a No Kings rally in Orono, Maine on Oct. 17. "It's grotesque to see hundreds of millions of dollars spent on political ads, when Mainers don't know how they're going to heat their homes this winter."
Jackson's campaign pointed to billionaires backing Collins's campaign.
"Billionaire and dark-money-funded groups are spending tens of millions more to keep Collins in Washington. Then she turns around and votes for tax breaks that make those same wealthy interests richer. That’s exactly the corrupt system Troy is running to change," said Jackson campaign spokesperson Maggie Amjad. "That’s exactly the corrupt system Troy is running to change.”
The Collins campaign did not comment on this story.
Majority of ad spend comes from outside groups
Though more money is backing Collins, the vast majority of that money is from issue groups. Looking at the candidate spend alone, Jackson actually outspends Collins at $22.4 million compared to her $11.9 million. According to AdImpact, outside groups spent more for Collins at $109 million compared to $64.4 million for Jackson.
A conservative-leaning Supreme Court in its 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission allowed for unlimited funding from super Political Action Committees, also known as PACs. However, super PACs must reveal their donors, and the seemingly endless cash continues pouring into political campaigns.
Franz encouraged people to look into the PACs sponsoring the ads, as some may bristle at outsiders being behind the messaging.
Collins and Jackson were asked about the record spending on ads in the race, a large share of it untraceable, at the Oct. 15 debate. Collins said she was in favor of reform and doesn't think dark money groups should exist. Jackson pointed to Elon Musk backing Collins, said he doesn't believe in corporate PAC money and said he wants to overturn Citizens United.
Outside ads are particularly helpful to candidates when they want voters to know about an unflattering fact without seeming mean by raising it themselves.
A radio ad that aired over the Oct. 17 weekend by the Senate Leadership Fund, a conservative super PAC, called Jackson a "creep" and "freak" over his relationship with his longtime partner, according to the Associated Press. "If he’ll screw his own family, he’ll screw yours too," the ad said, according to the AP. Jackson's longtime partner, mother of his children, and reportedly his second cousin, issued an op-ed in response to the ads about her family, saying she didn't think Collins and her supporters would "stoop this low."
Collins distanced herself from it, telling reporters she said it should be taken down. (Collins said in a September Politico story, "I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin.") She also told WGAN radio Oct. 27 this has been one of the most negative elections she has run in, accusing the Jackson campaign of running lies against her in the ads.
"We have legitimate differences on the issues, and the issues are really important, but this has disintegrated into character assassination," she told the station. "And that does not serve the people of Maine well."
Howe has continued knocking doors with his union groups throughout the month of October. He wondered if all the ad spending would reach a "tipping point" where it was discouraging voters from engaging in the election. After all, he had heard from some people in his canvassing conversations that the ads were such a turnoff that they were opting not to vote at all.
Contributing: Terry Collins, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. She is reporting from Maine for the 2026 midterm elections. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on Instagram and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maine sees most ad spending per capita for Senate race. Voters feel it
