AMNA NAWAZ: Returning now to the U.S.

midterm elections.

In this final week, campaigns and their allies are making their closing arguments, often 30 seconds at a time.

The amount spent on election advertising this year is enormous, larger than many states' entire annual budgets.

And many of the ads are focused on the question of affordability.

But, as Lisa Desjardins explains, the attacks are also getting more personal and more artificial.

SEN.

SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I'm Susan Collins.

JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm James Talarico.

REP.

MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): I'm Mike Lawler.

FMR.

SEN.

SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): I'm Sherrod Brown.

LISA DESJARDINS: On battleground state airwaves, phones, and laptops... NARRATOR: It doesn't matter if you live here or here.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... there's no escape from the closing blitz of campaign ads.

Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director Of The Wesleyan Media Project, tracks every one she can.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER, Co-Director, The Wesleyan Media Project: 2026 will be a record-breaking year for political advertising basically any way you measure it.

LISA DESJARDINS: Wesleyan's latest numbers count more than 250,000 ads airing per week.

And ad tracking firm AdImpact tallies more than 10 billion spent through September, and expect another 1.6 by Election Day, the most in history, including every presidential cycle.

NARRATOR: What do you really know about Rob Sand?

LISA DESJARDINS: Republicans are outspending their Democratic peers, but the gap has narrowed as Election Day draws closer.

Both parties are running on the economy.

WOMAN: Groceries, gas, our health care bills.

LISA DESJARDINS: Wesleyan's data show cost of living as Democrats' top issue, popping up in nearly a quarter of their recent Senate ads.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER: Democrats are definitely hammering home on the cost of groceries, the cost of gas, that it shouldn't take this much to stay afloat.

LISA DESJARDINS: For Republicans, the economic focus is on taxes.

NARRATOR: More spending that drives up costs.

LISA DESJARDINS: Accounting for one in five of their ads.

MAN: Data center production and energy use in Texas.

LISA DESJARDINS: The literal and metaphorical buzz around data centers represent another shared focus.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER: It's kind of a double hit.

You can attack corporations, as well as get on board with an issue that is unpopular.

LISA DESJARDINS: President Trump has the lowest approval ratings since Herbert Hoover, but continues to tell rally crowds to "Pretend I'm on the ballot."

But as John Link with AdImpact explained to us, Republicans on the ballot are leaving him out of their ads.

JOHN LINK, AdImpact: Trump nearly disappeared from most messaging, especially on the GOP side.

February of this year, 56 percent of all GOP ads mentioned Trump, in September, less than 1 percent.

LISA DESJARDINS: But Trump inserted himself.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.

LISA DESJARDINS: Using millions in taxpayer dollars for campaign-style ads before switching to private funding.

WOMAN: When it matters, Susan Collins sides with Trump.

LISA DESJARDINS: Here, Democrats agree with Trump.

They want him seen.

AdImpact finds he is in one out of five of Democratic-aligned ads this month.

NARRATOR: Lawler rams Trump's agenda over the line.

LISA DESJARDINS: Occasionally, an ad itself is an issue.

GOP Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign drew fire from both parties for this ad.

It features Donna Arthur... DONNA ARTHUR, Mother of Amy Acton: Amy has a serious problem.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... the estranged mother of Democrat Amy Acton, calling her daughter a liar.

AMY ACTON (D), Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate: I haven't seen my birth mother since I was 12.

My mother is not well, and I feel like it was an exploitive thing to do.

LISA DESJARDINS: Acton was removed from the house after her stepfather was charged with raping her.

He fled the state, and her mom stayed with him.

Ramaswamy's campaign is sticking by the ad, planning to spend $4 million airing it.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate: Voters deserve to know what the truth is, and the truth is that this woman is a liar.

LISA DESJARDINS: Voters routinely say they hate attack ads.

MICHAEL WEDDING, Ohio Voter: It's just gross, very, very gross.

SANJAY SRIPATHY, Ohio Voter: There's too many negative ads.

Most of the ads that I have seen are just negative.

LISA DESJARDINS: But, in general, Fowler says on-air attacks can serve a legitimate purpose.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER: If all of our election messaging was positive, we would have a lot of families and puppies on air.

And I do think the important issues at stake in elections are important to raise, and it's hard to do that without making a contrast.

LISA DESJARDINS: There is a difference, though, between hard-hitting negative ads on issues and sort of personal attack ads.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER: Over time, we have seen the personal and the policies start to intertwine.

And they definitely had blurred more in recent cycles, especially when you start getting into government ethics and corruption.

SKY ROBERTS, Brother of Virginia Giuffre: My sister Virginia was one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims.

LISA DESJARDINS: Like those harmed by Jeffrey Epstein, who have blasted some members of Congress as not doing enough.

NARRATOR: Dangerous soft-on-crime policies.

LISA DESJARDINS: Outside groups are outspending politicians three to one on attack ads.

Those dynamics aren't new, but technology has introduced a new player.

AI VOICE: Hello there.

I'm Josh Shapiro.

LISA DESJARDINS: AI.

The "News Hour" is watermarking those ads here.

This ad backing Pennsylvania Republican Stacy Garrity features an A.I.-generated video that looks like Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro.

Wesleyan has found 220 A.I.-made ads this cycle, with $137 million behind them.

In 2024, it found less than $50,000; 81 percent come from Republicans or their allies.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER: We suspect that potentially it's that Democrats face more reputational risk of using AI in their advertising and therefore may be more likely to avoid it.

LISA DESJARDINS: A Republican super PAC has run AI deepfakes of Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff as if he were getting beauty treatments with no disclosure that it's AI.

MAN: Ossoff needs to put down the mascara and join the real world.

LISA DESJARDINS: No federal law requires one.

AI VOICE: This ad was created with AI, thanks to big beautiful data centers.

LISA DESJARDINS: And Wesleyan found nearly three out of four AI ads don't carry one.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER: The big point to underscore is that, even though we have identified quite a few ads that use AI, there's undoubtedly much more that we cannot detect because it is just that challenging to be able to tell.

LISA DESJARDINS: There are some positive non-AI ads, many of them from candidates.

WOMAN: He shows up for everyone, co-workers, neighbors, and our whole community.

REP.

ASHLEY HINSON (R-IA), Senatorial Candidate: Working across the aisle isn't always easy, but it's how you get results.

LISA DESJARDINS: But the sheer volume of all political ads this year is mind-numbing.

Fowler understands.

ERIKA FRANKLIN FOWLER: Living in a swing state right now is not any fun at all.

And I apologize to all of the viewers who are having to live through it.

LISA DESJARDINS: But Link says, even so, the ads work.

JOHN LINK: If the ads weren't effective, at least perceived effective by these campaigns and marketers, we wouldn't see the dollars being spent.

It's not just to keep up with the Joneses.

LISA DESJARDINS: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins, and I approve this story.