Trump-Aligned Super PACs Have Reserved Over $150 Million in Midterm Ads in Two Weeks, Much in Trump-Won Seats

As of September 18, 2026, President Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc. and two new Trump-aligned groups, No Going Back PAC and Safety and Affordability PAC, had placed more than $150 million in initial ad reservations over the preceding two weeks, per NPR. An NPR analysis of AdImpact data found Republican candidates and groups had pledged more than $557 million to Democrats’ $343 million in the nine most competitive Senate races. MAGA Inc. ended July with more than $403 million in cash (CNBC, Sept. 18) and ended August with about $415.8 million after modest spending (CNBC, Sept. 21). Trump told reporters he expected to allocate “probably $400 or $500 million” to the midterms.

Where the money goes is the finding. NPR reports the Senate targets include Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and Ohio, and House spending includes Texas’ 15th (Trump +18 in 2024), Kentucky’s 6th (+15) and Alabama’s 2nd (+14). In Texas alone, pro-Paxton reservations for September exceeded $94 million against roughly $20 million for Democrat James Talarico — more than Democrats had spent on Texas ads all cycle. Outside money is being used to defend seats drawn or presumed safe, which means the reservations are a measure of the party’s exposure as well as its resources.

The concentration is in groups the president controls, not in the party. A sitting president directing a nine-figure super PAC, alongside newly created affiliated committees, into specific races extends the transactional pattern canon has logged this cycle — including a promised $5,000 payment conditioned on a Republican midterm win (2026-09-09–trump-promises-5000-dividend-conditioned-on-republican-midterm-win) and nine-figure AI-industry super PAC spending to block regulation (2026-03-12–ai-industry-super-pacs-flood-2026-midterms). NPR notes the dynamic reverses for candidate campaigns, where Democrats hold more cash.

Sourcing note. The capture ledger also reported that only about $1 million of $160 million in Republican TV ads mentioned Trump against about $23 million of Democratic ads; that figure was not located in the sources read at promotion and is omitted.