Good morning. Twenty-six days out.

In the three weeks after Labor Day, campaigns and outside groups spent nearly $1 billion on ads in House, Senate, and governor's races. According to the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political advertising, that's about a fifth of all the ad money spent this cycle.

Spending like that is a bet that what voters see on a screen is what they'll believe at the ballot box.

There are two ways the bet can go. If it pays off, the side with more ads wins the argument. If it doesn't, voters tune the ads out and go with what they can check for themselves: their bills, their paychecks, and what a candidate says to their face.

Pro-Republican spending is ahead in eight of the nine most expensive Senate races. So in my opinion, Democrats should be rooting for the second outcome, and talking like it.

Below, you'll find the Republican congressman who answered a cease-and-desist letter with an AI-generated duck, the half of affordability our columnist says Democrats keep leaving out, and what happened when a candidate with more than $100 million had to share a stage for an hour.

— Elias Isquith

If you've watched a campaign ad this fall, you've probably heard a Democrat promise to make life more affordable.

In a new column, Samarth Gupta argues that most of those promises are about prices, which are the half of affordability Democrats have the hardest time fixing quickly.

It's a practical warning. If Democrats win in November, voters will hold them to whatever they promised this fall.

To see why Samarth thinks even steady prices may not satisfy voters, read his full column at The Caucus.

Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire health care executive, spent more than $108 million of his own money winning his party's nomination for Georgia governor.

In the three weeks after Labor Day, ads backing his Democratic opponent, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, made up about 8 percent of the ad money spent in the race.

The seat is open because Republican Governor Brian Kemp is term-limited. This week’s debate in Doraville was the only one Jackson agreed to. Money can buy a lot of airtime, but it can't buy a longer answer.

For where the two split on Flock cameras, the license-plate readers that keep turning up on the campaign trail, read Surina Venkat's full story at The Caucus.

👍 When Republicans redrew House maps in the middle of the decade, they created 14 new strongly Republican districts. Punchbowl News counts only five as sure wins. Since September 1, Republicans have spent nearly $100 million on ads trying to flip the other nine.

👎 The new maps still help them. The Cook Political Report now expects Republicans to net about four seats from redistricting alone. Democrats will have to make up every one of those seats somewhere else.

👍 A Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed Monday found that 86 percent of Americans, including four in five Republicans, think it's inappropriate to spend taxpayer money on election-season TV ads featuring the president. The same day, Trump said taxpayers would stop paying for his.

👎 The ads aren't going anywhere. Trump says they'll now be paid for by MAGA Inc., his super PAC, which had more than $400 million as of July. He also hasn't committed to paying taxpayers back for the ads that already aired.

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