The brutal 2026 attack ads even rivals had to respect
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Summary
Top party strategists may hate seeing one of their candidates gutted by a brutal ad. But they can still admire the hit. Why it matters: A record $11.6 billion has plastered political ads across screens of every size in the country during the 2026 midterms . Only a handful of those earned the grudging respect of operatives on both sides. 📺 Zoom in: Multiple Republican strategists singled out the "brutal" series of ads attacking Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kans.) over lawsuits against patients with overdue medical bills — some of whom were later arrested . Against the advice of his own team, Marshall released a self-directed ad answering the attacks. In Nebraska , an ad highlighting a past vote by former Gov. Pete Ricketts to pardon a man convicted of rape was singled out by both parties as one of the cycle's most damaging. Ricketts is expected to win re-election to the Senate. In Maine, an upbeat jingle hit Democratic nominee Troy Jackson for having children with his second cousin. "If he'll f**k his own family, he'll f**k yours too," the radio ad said (among other things). Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) called for the ad to be taken down. And in Florida , Rep. MarÃa Salazar (R-Fla.) turned on her own party leader, criticizing President Trump over ICE's aggressive enforcement tactics, saying some immigration policies had "gone too far." The intrigue : Even hardened operatives are dealing with a new frontier: AI-generated attack ads that can make up scenarios and put words in an opponent's mouth. In Michigan , a Republican-aligned super PAC used AI-generated imagery to depict Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a fabricated family photo and playing a game with cards referencing "Death to America" and 9/11. In Texas, GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton's team used AI to depict Democratic candidate James Talarico defacing a Bible with a crayon and saying: "In the beginning God was non-binary, and he wasn't a Christian. And God said, 'let there be six genders,' and there were." 🤺 Between the lines: An attack ad helped spark this weekend's blowup in the Michigan Senate race. Rep. Haley Stevens' (D-Mich.) shocking decision to withdraw support from El-Sayed grew out of their public dispute over an ad she called antisemitic. El-Sayed ultimately disavowed the ad but said Stevens wasn't welcome at his events, and she endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) on Sunday. The other side: It's hard to imagine a bigger backfire than Vivek Ramaswamy's (R) ad featuring the estranged mother of his opponent for Ohio governor, Amy Acton (D). It could prove fatal for his gubernatorial bid, and Republicans worry it could hurt Sen. John Husted's (R) re-election chances too. The ad sparked immediate bipartisan backlash. Ramaswamy doubled down before pulling it off-air. One internal GOP poll had Acton's lead grow by 6 points after the ad ran.
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