Iowa Politics with Jeff Stein -- Thu. Aug. 20, 2026

More money.

I'm Jeff Stein with today's Iowa Politics Report.

There is an open U.S.

Senate seat in Iowa in the November general election and it's one of eight generally recognized battleground races.

And with that, of course, comes tons of advertising dollars.

Inside radio reports that the ad tracking firm ad impact says more than a half billion dollars is already reserved between now and election day in those eight states alone.

$549 million in fall ad reservations to be exact.

Republican advertisers have the advantage in six of the states, including Iowa, and there is plenty more money waiting to hit the airwaves.

Ohio is shaping up as the biggest advertising battlefield.

Ad Impact's reservation tracker shows Republicans with $77.9 million booked in the Senate race and Democrats with $69.1 million.

So that's nearly $150 million combined just in one state, just on the Senate race.

Overall, the Republican-backed Senate Leadership Fund has booked $205 million in fall reservations, while the Democrats win Senate has $184 million lined up.

SLF, as we've told you previously, has dropped $33 million this year in the Iowa race alone.

Add Impact notes that candidates themselves are adding millions more to the pipeline, including Iowa Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson with $3.8 million in future reservations.

Overall, Add Impact reports $5.23 billion has been spent so far in the 2026 election cycle.

That's through last Friday.

That number is more than a third more than the 3.88 billion that was spent at this point in the 2022 midterm election.

And in the first two weeks of this month of August alone, it reports $317.4 million in political advertising aired.

And there's still 75 days until election day.

And that's the Iowa Politics Report for Thursday, August 20 on Twitter, Instagram, Gitter, Threads and Truth Social at Iowa Politics.

I'm Jeff Stein on News Talk 1540, KXEL.