A Political Advertiser’s Guide to ‘News-Avoiding’ Voters
By: Kory Vargas Caro, Senior Director, Enterprise Sales – Political
Political campaigns have long relied on news environments to reach voters during major election cycles. But as more Americans withdraw from traditional news outlets – nearly 40% of Americans avoid news because of overwhelm, fatigue or distrust – political advertisers face less direct routes to connecting with these audiences. That said, despite actively avoiding political news, these voters are still passively exposed to it, largely in non-traditional news environments (think: through social channels and even AI platforms).
Further, Nexxen’s new 2026 U.S. Midterm Elections report — leveraging our proprietary data and resources to track past, present and future voter behavior – found that 80% of news-avoiding voters participated in the 2024 presidential election and 86% plan to vote in the 2026 midterms. The major implication here? The next midterm advantage will come from using real-time signals to reach these voters across everyday channels where influence happens.
1. News avoidance does not mean political disengagement
News-avoiding voters resist the emotional experience of news more than the issues themselves. Many cite negative mood, overwhelm and distrust as reasons for pulling back from political coverage, but that behavior does not signal apathy. These voters remain highly concerned about the topics shaping the election, especially economic issues, like the job market and taxes.
Our research suggests that staying current with sentiment and interests is what helps keep campaigns aligned with who’s avoiding news at any given moment, strengthening their capacity to match a message to voter interest (without relying on political news consumption as the main proxy for engagement).
2. Influence increasingly begins outside traditional news environments
For news-avoiding voters, political information often arrives passively. Nexxen’s report found that 91% unintentionally encounter political content in non-traditional news environments, including social media, YouTube, streaming, podcasts and elsewhere.
Outside of family and friends, we discovered that creators, podcast hosts and other public personalities are the next most influential group when it comes to shaping opinions.
Non-traditional news environments offer more than reach; they reveal how political influence starts. Creator content, podcasts, entertainment and social video can show which topics, voices and cultural moments already connect with news-avoiding voters. Advertisers can use those patterns to guide audience strategy, shape creative and extend influence across premium digital and CTV inventory.
3. Real-time signals matter as voter decisions move closer to Election Day
Because about one-third of news-avoiding voters are still deciding for whom to cast their vote in the final weeks leading up to an election, campaigns have a longer window to shape awareness and preference, but that extended window also makes data recency more important. A voter avoiding political news in July may re-engage by October, while another may tune out as the cycle intensifies, making it critical for advertisers to understand audience behavior shifts in real time.
Audience signals need to reflect voter behavior at each stage of the campaign cycle because they reveal movement from casual exposure to active research, giving advertisers a stronger basis for media placement, budget allocation and message specificity as Election Day approaches. As voters move closer to a decision, media strategy needs to move from broad awareness to sharper messages tied to the issues, candidates and choices under active consideration.
The 2026 midterms will reward campaigns that plan for fluidity. News-avoiding voters are not unreachable, nor are they a monolith. But reaching them requires audience intelligence updated in real-time, coordinated touchpoints and a media strategy built around how political awareness forms today.
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