Jennifer Balkcom, a Republican running for Congress in western North Carolina, introduced herself to voters by informing them that her single mom once shot a home intruder.
"You break into my house, you're going to get shot," Balkcom's mother says in her twangy mountain accent in a campaign ad posted Sept. 29 on YouTube, which already boasts over 800,000 views.
The camera then pans to Balkcom, a 48-year-old state representative, whose mom says she would bring her family's mountain toughness from their house to the House of Representatives as both women hold white coffee cups at a wooden dining room table.
The commercial is airing in one of the nation's most competitive congressional races and illustrates the metamorphosis of how campaign ads are
produced and consumed during this midterm cycle.
Advertisements must be attention grabbing as both parties fight for visibility ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3, political experts, including Travis Ridout, a professor of government and public policy at Washington State University, say.
"I think just the capacity to target nowadays and tailor those messages to specific audiences means it's less (of) the standard generic ad that we're trying to appeal to all voters with," Ridout told USA TODAY.
Political spending during the 2025-26 election season has already surpassed $10 billion, exceeding the total ad spending in both the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 election cycles, according to AdImpact Politics, an ad intelligence firm. AdImpact estimates that this year will mark the most expensive election cycle in U.S. history with upward to $11.6 billion in spending.
But it's not just the sheer size of the ad buys that stand out.
Candidates across the U.S. have used everything from F-bombs to fortune cookies to help boost their own prospects. Wisconsin state Rep. Steve Doyle even held a pet alpaca: "Please, don't fall for emotional appeals. Oh, and this is my baby alpaca, Pasta. She hopes you'll vote for me!" he joked.
Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama cut ads to support a slate of Democratic candidates while some Republicans are using their own spots to seek distance from President Donald Trump, who faces sinking approval ratings.
Viral F-bombs help flip fates in Illinois
In 2024, Cameron Shelton, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in California, found in his research that campaign ads confirm previously held biases.
"They're usually just sort of, 'How can I activate latent beliefs that somebody already has with very, very simple language and simple images?'" Shelton told USA TODAY.
Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton was struggling to break out from second place in February in an expensive, bitter Democratic primary to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Advisor Kaitlin Fahey, the CEO at Chicago-based Magnify Strategies political consulting firm, said Stratton had "one shot" to set herself apart from her opponents, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly.
The Senate races in reliably blue states like Illinois and nearby Minnesota may be sleepier than contests in Michigan or Texas, but the Democratic primaries were no less cutthroat.
Krishnamoorthi touted a massive war chest, including financial support from cryptocurrency PACs, while Kelly, a fellow Black woman, wielded the endorsement of the influential Congressional Black Caucus.
Then Stratton's "f Trump" ad went viral on X and helped her break out of the congested race.
Trump's Midway Blitz immigration enforcement operations in Chicago had left a sour taste in the mouths of many Democratic primary voters – so Stratton's campaign released the profanity-laced spot in which several voters say "f--- Trump, vote Julianna" directly to the camera.
"They said it, not me," Stratton then quips, before pledging to stand up to the president.
The 30-second video ends with one last "f--- Trump" from Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and a final "vote Julianna" by Gov. JB Pritzker.
The Stratton apparatus knew the profanity-laced ad would make waves, and ruffle feathers, but it was ultimately successful, Fahey said.
"We also wanted to raise money off of it. We wanted to earn media attention," Fahey said of the viral video.
The ad garnered over 1.6 million all-time views on X. Fahey said her team also wanted the ad to shine more light on the safely blue race but noted that the campaign used other vehicles to discuss Stratton's core policy priorities.
While it's impossible to attribute a campaign's success to a single variable, Stratton went on to best Krishnamoorthi by seven points and Kelly by 22.
Political food fights
At least one Republican adopted a similar bold strategy. In July, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, released a controversial ad when she faced an unexpectedly competitive field of primary opponents to replace Gov. Bill Lee.
The two-term senator's gubernatorial campaign video featured Blackburn at a Chinese restaurant, surrounded by bottles of soy sauce and fortune cookies wrapped in plastic packaging.
"How hard am I going to crack down on China?" Blackburn says, flanked by red booths. "Well, here's a clue." The 74-year-old lawmaker then smashed a series of fortune cookies over a menu while grimacing. A piece of fortune cookie paper read, "MARSHA BLACKBURN WILL FIGHT TO PROTECT TENNESSEE LAND FROM CHINA."
Blackburn won the Aug. 6 primary by 10 points over her closest challenger.
Swing-state candidates look for broad appeal
As candidates in red and blue races double down on appealing to their base, candidates in competitive general election races are aiming to show their independence.
Pennsylvania's first-term Rep. Rob Bresnahan is defending a seat he won by less than two points in 2024 in a race rated "toss-up" by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which ranks political matchups across the country. (Balkcom, whose mom shot the intruder, faces Jamie Ager in a similar contest.)
He caught a bologna chub like a football in a new ad before slamming the meat log down on a kitchen island seemingly pulled straight out of ABC's 2000s suburban drama "Desperate Housewives."
"Paige Cognetti and her allies are full of baloney," Bresnahan says, referring to his Democratic opponent, the mayor of Joe Biden's hometown, Scranton. "Spending millions to paint me as something I am not."
In Iowa's toss-up Senate race, Rep. Ashley Hinson is creating space between herself and Trump – despite serving as a longtime surrogate – as she vies for the seat held by retiring Sen. Joni Ernst.
Ernst herself starred in a famous campaign commercial, "Squeal," in her first 2014 run for Senate in which she vowed to "make 'em squeal" after telling voters how she grew up castrating hogs.
In mid-September, Hinson's campaign released an ad featuring the congresswoman seated in a movie theater.
"It used to be that reaching across the aisle wasn't just OK, it was expected," Hinson says, as she handed over a bucket of popcorn across a theater aisle.
Monadnock Strategies founder Jesse Hunt, the former communications director at the Republican Governors Association, said campaigns target whatever group they need to win.
Sometimes, candidates woo base voters, Hunt said, and other times they seek support from independents like in Hinson's case.
"This might sound cliche, but it's all about what each campaign team believes is its winning coalition," Hunt said.
Hoops with Obama
Hinson's Democratic opponent, state Rep. Josh Turek, is running ads featuring Obama, who endorsed him in a basketball-themed July video. Obama, a noted basketball fan, shared his support for Turek, a two-time Paralympian in wheelchair basketball at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Games.
"Now, the ball's in your court," Obama says to Iowans.
Obama cut ads in October for a large slate of Democratic candidates in contentious races. He endorsed Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for governor as well as Colorado's Phil Weiser, Wisconsin's David Crowley and Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia who are competing in open gubernatorial contests.
He also endorsed Stratton, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Maine's Troy Jackson for Senate.
'I think most politicians are full of...'
In a swing district Trump won, one Democratic member of Congress is hoping to reuse unique tactics to distinguish her brand.
In 2024, Democratic state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet ran against Paul Junge in Michigan's 8th District, which became friendlier to Republicans after it was redrawn in 2023.
Now a congresswoman, Rivet enlisted the help of Declaration Media Group, a firm founded by Obama creative alumni who worked on successful battleground races in 2018 and 2020.
The Declaration team is again working with Rivet to win re-election in a district that includes Flint. The House member returned to a bar she filmed at during her first bid for Congress in a new ad.
"Two years ago, I sat right here and I told you this: 'I think most politicians are full of s---.' It's way worse than I thought," Rivet says.
"I approve this message because you deserve better than what you've been getting. I'm working hard to fix that," she adds while holding up a beer glass. A YouTube version posted Oct. 7 has nearly 1 million views.
Declaration consultants, including co-founder AJ Lenar, utilized Rivet's background in 2024 to separate her from national Democrats including then-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost Michigan to Trump.
Last cycle, Lenar produced an ad where Rivet's husband threw himself out of a car. In the spot, the legislator obsesses over tax cuts on a neighborhood drive, so Joseph Rivet unbuckles his seatbelt and flings himself from the passenger seat of a red Chevrolet Impala.
"We knew that district was turning against us demographically, politically, right? And we just felt like we needed to do something that would make her stand out," Lenar told USA TODAY.
On Election Day, Rivet won by nearly 7 points while Trump prevailed over Harris by two percentage points in the district.
In an upcoming ad, Rivet's spouse will again reprise his role as sidekick – this time, Declaration applied special effects to set his hands on fire.
In the original bar spot, Declaration leaned into long held beliefs about sharing brews with officeholders.
"They say politics comes down to who you want to have a beer with, so here goes," Rivet says.
Rivet, who used to run Michigan Head Start, also explains her biography: the lawmaker has six kids.
"I know, that's a lot," she says. "Now in the State Senate, I'm fighting to lower drug prices and housing costs and I helped pass the largest tax cut in state history."
"I root for the Lions, I hate Ohio and I think most politicians are full of s---," Rivet says. A beer glass slid into her right hand before she hoisted it up and said "Cheers!"
An ad standoff in Texas
Over 1,000 miles away from mid-Michigan, arguably no race has sparked more conversations about campaign advertising this cycle than the Texas Senate battle.
The Lone Star contest has been contentious since before the respective spring primaries determined Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, would become their parties' nominees.
Talarico released an opening ad standing on a rusted pickup truck, surrounded by dozens of people in front of a church. "The biggest divide in our country is not left vs. right, it's top vs. bottom," the Presbyterian seminarian says to cheers.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a two-term Dallas area congresswoman who also competed in the primaries, shared an announcement video in which she stares to the side as audio of Trump insulting her plays.
The contrasting ads stoked online narratives about both candidates – one of which was that Talarico was a man of the people while Crockett was more self-serving. Crockett lost the Senate primary to Talarico, her pre-congressional colleague in the statehouse, in March.
Then Talarico's campaign produced several ads to underscore Paxton's ethical dilemmas after Paxton prevailed in a May primary runoff over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. In one August video, Talarico seized on Paxton taking a $1,000 Montblanc pen from a different man, lawyer Joe Joplin, in 2013 at the Collin County Courthouse.
The ad featured security footage ... and an endorsement from Joplin, the pen's owner.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said Talarico's faith-based message has given his candidacy a distinctive identity. Talarico's campaign, Rottinghaus said, has cast him as a centrist who can appeal beyond the Democrats' national brand.
"He's able to present himself as somebody who's more moderate in a world that's very polarizing," Rottinghaus told USA TODAY.
Paxton is currently and very publicly estranged from his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton. Recently, she starred in an early October ad that encouraged Republicans to vote red down the ticket.
Paxton's camp fought back, too. Their daughter, Mattie Hayworth Paxton, has appeared in multiple ads presenting her dad as a devoted father.
Texas is known for its uncertain terrain with its wet plains and deep canyons. The race's landscape is rough, too.
Rottinghaus said a win by Talarico could upend ideas about electability. He would be the first Texas Democrat to win a Senate seat since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.
But his videos won't matter as much as votes on Nov. 3.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Guns, F-bombs, fortune cookies. What do wild campaign ads actually say?
