For a minute there, Donald Trump wasn’t the dominant political story. In between peak coverage in August of the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago home and Thursday’s public vote by the Jan. 6 committee to subpoena the former president, there were long stretches when Trump wasn’t the main character of the midterms.

In some ways he still isn’t. As NYT’s Blake Hounshell and Alyce McFadden point out, Jan. 6 “is practically invisible on the nation’s airwaves, despite nearly a billion dollars in overall ad spending this year.” POLITICO’s Jordain Carney, Sarah Ferris, and Ally Mutnick note that “Democrats have aired just two dozen spots focused on threats to democracy this cycle, in roughly 16 different battleground districts.” 

But even if he didn’t appear in a single ad — and there are plenty that include him —  Trump still looms over everything in politics.

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.