Funded by Leading National Foundations, This C-SPAN Campaign 2026 Initiative Sends Multimedia Journalists to Battleground States to Bring Voters Unfiltered Access to U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and Gubernatorial Candidates — Coverage Shared Free of Charge with Local News Partners
(June 29, 2026, Washington, DC) — C-SPAN today announces a first-of-its-kind initiative to expand its nonpartisan, unfiltered political coverage of the 2026 midterm elections. Through Road to the Capitol: Candidate Coverage from the Trail, a C-SPAN Campaign 2026 initiative, C-SPAN is embedding multimedia journalists in key battleground regions to cover competitive House, Senate, and gubernatorial races. This initiative is made possible with generous support from national philanthropic foundations.
Key elements of the initiative include:
Embedding C-SPAN multimedia journalists in key regions to provide on-the-ground video coverage of top races.
Airing video nationally across C-SPAN platforms and archiving all footage in C-SPAN’s Video Library as a permanent public record.
Sharing every recorded event at no cost with local, nonprofit, and independent media outlets, enabling partners to use the video to inform voters in ways that best serve their communities.
The initiative addresses a growing gap in local political journalism: as Campaign 2026 races heat up and drive much of the national political conversation, many voters and communities across the country remain without consistent, on-the-ground video coverage of their competitive House, Senate, and governor races. Many local newsrooms lack staffing with video resources to cover campaign events, limiting voters’ ability to see and hear candidates directly. C-SPAN is stepping in to help fill that gap.
Initial Coverage Regions
C-SPAN will focus its coverage on an initial set of regions selected for their political importance in determining the balance of power in Congress and key governorships, with plans to expand as the campaign season progresses. Initial states include Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.
How This Initiative Will Serve Voters and Local Newsrooms
C-SPAN’s embedded multimedia journalists will capture full video of campaign events in regions where they are based. All of their campaign coverage, including full event video, key-moment clips, and transcripts, will be made available at no cost to local, nonprofit, and independent media outlets who join the initiative. Partners may air, stream, embed, or use the material in whatever way best serves their communities. This distribution model represents a first-of-its-kind, video-centric partnership between a national public affairs TV network and local news organizations.
Events may also air nationally across C-SPAN platforms and will be archived permanently in C-SPAN’s Video Library for public access. A Washington-based team will coordinate coverage and ensure timely distribution of new assets to local media partners.
Funding Partners
The multimedia journalist embeds are new positions at C-SPAN, a privately funded 501(c)(3). National philanthropies and nonprofits are helping fund the project, enabling C-SPAN to expand on-the-ground video coverage of competitive races across the country.
Founding partners for this inaugural program include:
Andrew Carnegie Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
More Perfect
From the C-SPAN CEO
“Local political journalism is shrinking at exactly the moment voters need it most. Congressional campaign events and town halls frequently go unrecorded. Candidates hold forums with no video journalists in the room. Voters in district after district are left without seeing video of the people seeking to represent them. This may become the most important midterm election in modern history – and the most uncovered by video journalists. C-SPAN is helping to fill this video void, and we’re grateful to have partners who share that urgency funding this work.”
— Sam Feist, CEO, C-SPAN
