Political campaigns and organizations have booked about $39 million in political advertising on the Lansing-Jackson market’s four commercial over-the-air television stations this year.
And with the Nov. 3 general election still more than five weeks away, that number could climb.
The Lansing-Jackson market is the nation’s 117th-largest television market, with roughly 266,000 TV households. By comparison, Detroit ranks 14th nationally with about 1.94 million TV households, more than seven times as many.
That’s $16 million for WLNS and $14 million for WILX (News 10), according to records the stations submitted to the Federal Communications Commission. Add to that $9 million total for WLAJ and WSYM (Fox 47), their executives say.
“This is an unusually big year for a midterm election, pacing 60% over 2022 total spending as of the same date, and significantly higher than 2018,” Debbie Petersmark, WILX’s general manager, said.
WKAR News combed through more than 1,200 documents in the FCC’s Public Inspection File to track spending on News 10 and WLNS.
Candidates, parties and political action committees have run or reserved more than 20,000 spots on those two stations.
In addition, Petersmark said Fox 47 has run or scheduled another $4 million worth of ads. Gray Media owns and operates both stations.
Jennifer Alexander, WLNS’ sales manager, said WLAJ has booked $5 million. Nexstar Media Group, which owns WLNS, also operates WLAJ for its owner, Mission Broadcasting.
Political advertising orders commonly include a 15% agency commission, with the remainder going to the stations. Political advertisers must pay in advance to the four stations.
Why such a big year?
Over-the-air TV gets the largest share of media spending: 48%, or $5.6 billion, AdImpact says. “Connected TV,” which is any TV that connects to the internet for streaming content, is gaining, but at $2.7 billion it is still well behind, followed by digital, cable, radio and satellite.
Two developments are shaping political advertising in the final months of the 2026 campaign: a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the high number of competitive races nationally that will determine who controls the U.S. House and Senate.
The high court’s ruling in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission “changed the dynamics a lot,” Alexander said.
The 6-3 decision struck down federal limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates.
In the Lansing-Jackson market, two races account for most of the political advertising on WLNS and News 10.
The U.S. Senate race has brought in $13.8 million, while the 7th Congressional District race accounts for more than $12 million of the $30 million spent or booked on the two stations.
“The rule of thumb with political advertising is that you want your audience to hear your message eight to 10 times before it sinks in,” said Josh Hovey of Bellwether Public Relations in Lansing. “We're all being bombarded with messages from both sides of the aisle right now because those candidates are trying to reinforce what they see as their key messages.”
U.S. Senate
Spending accelerated during the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Gary Peters.
Beginning in June, PACs led by AIPAC’s United Democracy Project and other groups supporting U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens ran nearly 3,000 spots worth more than $6 million on News 10 and WLNS.
Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign placed 572 commercials for $92,165 on the two stations. Despite the spending gap, El-Sayed went on to a narrow primary victory.
Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee, began general-election advertising soon after the primary.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has booked about $640,000 in coordinated ads supporting Rogers through Oct. 5. The Great Lakes Conservatives Fund has run more than $1.2 million in ads supporting Rogers.
El-Sayed’s campaign has booked far more TV advertising in the Lansing-Jackson market for the general election than it did in the primary, nearly $783,000 worth through Sept. 28, FCC records show. That included a $25,000 spot on the Michigan State-Notre Dame game on WILX on Sept. 19.
Last week, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee placed its first coordinated ads supporting El-Sayed, booking 76 spots through Sept. 28 on WLNS at a cost of $25,300.
7th Congressional District
The 7th Congressional District race is, at $12 milion, a close second to the Senate race for spending on local TV ads so far, following a competitive Democratic primary among three candidates vying to take on incumbent freshman Republican Tom Barrett.
William Lawrence of Lansing prevailed over Bridget Brink of Lansing and Matt Maasdam of the Brighton area.
Lawrence spent $192,375 on 227 ads, while Brink, who finished second, spent $133,105 on 541 ads. Maasdam, who finished third, spent $204,105 on 196 ads.
Barrett was unopposed in the primary, but by mid-August he was on the air with ads for the general election. Overall, Barrett has so far ordered 2,005 ads through Election Day at a cost of $1,375,600.
Lawrence launched his general-election ads after Labor Day. His ad buy was more than $445,000 for 900 ads scheduled through Sept. 28.
Political action committees played a big role in the 7th District primary and are doing so again in the general election.
One of the largest GOP PACs is the Congressional Leadership Fund. It is spending $3.1 million on almost 1,200 ads supporting Barrett.
House Majority PAC has committed even more to support Lawrence: $3.6 million for more than 2,000 spots. A related group, House Majority Forward, has booked another $285,000 worth of advertising supporting Lawrence.
State races
Political advertising in the race for governor started early.
Last March, Mission Michigan Political Action Committee ran three ads on WLNS for $25,000 each during the NCAA basketball tournament to promote U.S. Rep. John James, who went on to secure the Republican nomination for governor.
Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic candidate for governor, is the biggest general-election spender thus far. Her orders with WLNS and News 10 stand at $548,260 for the year for 1,049 ads.
James’ campaign committee has not placed general-election orders on the two stations, according to the records reviewed by WKAR News.
The only other statewide candidate for a state office to schedule ads so far is Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, the Democrats’ nominee for secretary of state. He has ordered 205 ads for $134,750 to start running in October on WLNS and another $26,000 on WLAJ.
Gilchrist’s Republican opponent, Anthony Forlini, has yet to order any ads.
Neither party’s attorney general candidate, Eli Savit for the Democrats and Doug Lloyd for the Republicans, has ordered ads yet.
As for other big spenders this year, two stand out for expensive losses.
One was former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. Put Progress First PAC spent more than $600,000 promoting his effort to establish himself as a viable independent candidate for governor before he ended his campaign in May.
But so far neither Benson nor Duggan was the biggest spender in the gubernatorial race.
Businessman Perry Johnson, who came in second in the Republican primary, spent nearly $2.5 million, almost entirely self-funded, on more than 2,300 spots on News 10 and WLNS before canceling his remaining advertising two weeks before the Aug. 4 primary.
Those cancellations removed nearly $328,000 in scheduled advertising from the two stations.
