Reform

On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court struck down the last federal limit on what a political party may spend in coordination with its own candidates. The vote was 6 to 3. The case was National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, and the most remarkable fact about it was not the outcome. It was that the United States government agreed with the plaintiffs. The Justice Department told the Court that the 2001 precedent upholding those limits, Colorado II, “no longer retains vitality,” and declined to defend a statute it is charged with enforcing. When the government stops defending its own campaign finance law, the law is not being narrowed. It is being vacated. ...

Two days after the polls closed, the accounting began. OpenSecrets puts the 2026 midterms at $11.9 billion, the most expensive midterm in the country’s history, up from $8.9 billion in 2022. Outside spending is projected at $3.9 billion, an 85 percent increase in four years. Dark money, the contributions routed through entities that disclose no original donor, has passed $1.47 billion and will finish above the 2024 presidential cycle. One man gave $445 million. ...