FWIW: February 27, 2026
FWIW, U.S. political advertisers spent about $14.5 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
The Texas Democratic Senate primary has had no shortage of drama and, well, that continues to be the case. Last Monday night, Stephen Colbert (of canceled “Late Show” fame) shared that he was told “in no uncertain terms” by CBS lawyers that his interview with James Talarico would not be allowed to air on the network. CBS later claimed that was not the case… but let’s back up for a second.
CBS’ parent company, Paramount Skydance, is run by David Ellison, who, along with his dad, Larry, is besties with Trump. Until yesterday, Paramount had been in a battle with Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery — either deal requiring regulatory approval from the Justice Department and since the Justice Department is basically in Trump’s pocket, it’s safe to say the winning company would benefit from having a favorable relationship with the president. Whether you believe Colbert or CBS’ version of the story, Paramount has been known to cave to Trump in the past, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they did so again.
Either way, Colbert posted the interview as an “online exclusive” and Talarico made a pretty penny after the incident, raking in $2.5M in 24 hours, the best fundraising day of his campaign. He turned around and spent over $1M on Meta ads last week alone, more than 7x that of his opponent, Jasmine Crockett. If recent polls are to be believed, Democrats’ high early voting turnout is encouraging and either of them has a shot at winning the nomination. At this time next week, the contentious primary will (hopefully) have come to an end, BUT if neither candidate receives at least 50% of the vote, they will advance to a May 26th primary runoff… fun times.
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent nearly $7.4 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent just over $1 million on ads so far in 2026. According to X’s political ad disclosure, here are the top spenders year to date on the platform where Democrats’ presence continues to dwindle:
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent nearly $232,000 on ads in 2026. Here are the top spenders year to date:
It’s rare to see a candidate running in a local election on any list of top US political ad spenders, but former Houston mayor Annise Parker came in at #10 on Snapchat last week. Polls have her as the frontrunner in the Democratic primary for Harris County judge.
