Michiganders slammed by historic political ad spend ready for midterms to end

DETROIT — Gwyneth Love is ready for the United States midterm elections to be over. The 24-year-old Michigander lives in the eye of the political storm.

The tight race between Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed for a key Michigan Senate seat could ultimately decide which party holds power in Congress.

“I feel like this year more than any years we’ve been getting a lot more ads,” Love said Friday in Detroit.

“It honestly is very insane when you see so many ads telling you who to vote for and you can’t really believe what they tell you.”

Tuesday’s midterm election brings high stakes for both parties. A Democrat wave could see a Congressional check to U.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of executive powers during the remainder of his tenure.

Polling shows Democrats are favoured to take the House, where a net gain of three seats would give them a majority. The future of the Senate is less clear, where some polling shows a Democrat net gain of four seats is within reach.

Republicans have rolled out record spending in an effort to hold their Senate majority. The party is fighting for votes, even in historically Republican seats, amid Trump’s plummeting favourability over controversial policies, rising gas prices, tariffs and the war in Iran.

Spending on political ads ahead of the midterms is set to be the highest in U.S. history at $11.6 billion, according the AdImpact, an advertising intelligence firm. The Detroit News reported in early October that Michigan’s Senate contest was already the most expensive race in that state’s history.

The United States has become deeply partisan and it’s unclear how much the dollars spent on advertising will equate to ballots cast on election day.

What is evident on the streets of Detroit is frustration and exhaustion from the barrage of campaign messaging in the highly competitive race.

Love said she just can’t escape the political discourse. She was continuously bombarded with political ads on television and social media while getting ready to attend an anime and pop culture convention in downtown Detroit with Amelia Cunningham on Friday.

“It kind of gets to the point where you’re almost uncomfortable watching them,” Cunningham, 24, said.

Both Love and Cunningham said they were motivated to vote because of affordability issues and the high cost of gas. Love added she’d cast a ballot for “anyone other than Mike Rogers.”

“He’s been pushing so many ads being so rude to other people,” she said.

Both candidates have released sharp attack ads criticizing the other. Rogers has gone after his opponent’s background and controversial past remarks. El-Sayed has condemned Rogers for his corporate ties and legislative records.

The Republican candidate distanced himself from Trump’s trade war with Canada in recent weeks. In a campaign ad released last month, Rogers is seen drinking a Labatt’s beer and telling voters “Canada is not our enemy.”

Stacy Riley said she feels awful about the tension between the two countries. But it’s not the top issue for the 54-year-old nurse practitioner.

She works in public health and that’s the motivating factor for why she supports El-Sayed, who also worked in that field as an administrator and is an epidemiologist.

“I’ve never seen it tight like this,” Riley said. “I’ve ever seen so much money spent and probably on both sides.”

Detroit historically leans Democrat, although Trump was able to garner up a decent surge of voters during the 2024 election.

Black voters are potential difference-makers in the race. In the final weeks of the campaign both El-Sayed and Rogers have been trying to shore up support from the Black community.

But the constant political messaging is tiring, said Jerome Watkins.

“I voted yesterday and I’m still getting them. I thought that would stop them,” Watkins said with a laugh outside a Detroit grocery store Friday.

Like many Michiganders, the 67-year-old voted because of the economy and high gas prices. The trade war with Canada wasn’t particularly on his radar and he was hopeful trade between the two countries could return to pre-Trump times.

While Watkins voted for El-Sayed he said it wasn’t because of the Democrat’s policies.

“It was part of the anti-everything going on with Trump and I didn’t ever like Mike Rogers anyway,” Watkins said. “So that was it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2026.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press