My remote has one job this week, and it is muting campaign ads during the evening news.
If those ads feel aimed at you, they are.
In the 2022 midterms, people 65 and up were under a quarter of eligible voters. They cast nearly a third of the ballots. The Census Bureau put the gap at almost seven points.
Younger adults did the opposite. People 18 to 29 were nearly a fifth of the eligible pool. They cast only about one ballot in every eight.
So a campaign does not guess where to spend. It reads our birthdays and our turnout, and it plans around both.
That is also why so much of this fall’s closing pitch is about your money. Taxes, the national debt, the rules on retirement accounts. Whatever happens Tuesday, the people who planned ahead tend to sleep better Wednesday.
Now follow the campaign money to the screen. Two numbers explain most of it.
Who shows up
People 65 and older cast 30.4% of 2022 midterm ballots. Adults 18 to 29 cast 11.7%. Turnout, not population, decides who gets courted.
Where the money goes
AdImpact projects $11.6 billion in political ads this cycle, a record. Broadcast TV gets about $5.6 billion of it. That is close to half.
Put those two numbers side by side and the logic gets plain fast.
Pew asked Americans this summer where they get their news. Among adults 65 and up, 84% get it from TV at least sometimes. Among adults under 30, it is 46%.
The voters who reliably show up are the viewers who still watch. Campaigns pay for that overlap, and they pay a premium in the final week.
Where the cohort’s money sits this quarter, and where the campaigns are aiming.
The honest catch? This money arrives every two years and leaves the morning after. A station books a record fall, then a flat spring.
And every cycle, a few more of us drift to streaming. The ads follow us there anyway, but the local station does not always get paid for it.
One more number the campaigns rarely mention. The government still carries its own gold at $42.22 an ounce on its books. That price was set by law in the early 1970s.
Some people in the gold business think a future administration could change that number. One gold dealer laid out its case.
The arithmetic
People 65 and older were 30.4% of 2022 midterm voters against 23.8% of the citizen voting-age population; adults 18 to 29 were 11.7% of voters against 19.6% of that population: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey voting supplement for November 2022, released 2023. $11.6 billion projected for the 2026 cycle, with about $5.6 billion on broadcast TV: AdImpact, as reported by TV Tech, June 11, 2026. 84% of adults 65 and older and 46% of adults 18 to 29 get news from TV at least sometimes: Pew Research Center, News Platform Fact Sheet, survey of Aug. 24-30, 2026. The statutory book value of U.S. government gold, $42.2222 an ounce, set in 1973: U.S. Treasury. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
Tuesday night, when the map starts filling in, look around the living room. Whoever is still up at eleven is the electorate. It is also the audience the ads were bought for. Same time tomorrow, a few days closer to the count.
Andrew
Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.
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