INSPECTING ARCHIVED INTELLIGENCE (OUTDATED VERSION).

American Campaigns Leverage AI for Election Advantage

| 2026-10-02 11:02 MEDIUM LOW INDUSTRY & POLICY
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Executive Summary
AI-generated
A new campaign finance disclosure data has revealed that at least $17m in disclosed spending on AI technology vendors was made across 523 federal candidates and campaigns, with the majority of these expenses being reported by Republican users. The largest individual user is Tom Cotton's campaign, which spent over $4,000 on Anthropic software in June. Candidates are quiet about how they use AI tools in their own campaigns due to a sensitive issue that has been tracked closely since 2025. Only OpenAI and Anthropic have seen significant usage by federal candidates, with at least 80 and 65 users respectively, skewed towards Democrats but also including Republican users such as the Trump administration-backed xAI.
Technical Mitigations AI-generated
• OpenAI's ChatGPT tool, due to its policies prohibiting some political uses. • Anthropic, with a nearly two-to-one Democrat-to-Republican ratio in reported usage. • AmplifAI, which was used heavily by Democratic candidates including Mark Kelly and Joe Biden.
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Intelligence Metadata
Actors / Malware / CVEs / Campaigns
Target & Sectors
NORTH_AMERICA NORTH_AMERICA mediamedia
Incident Timeline
‎Obama 2008
Congress funded the US Digital Service to bring innovative software ideas for politics and civic engagement from organizations like Code for America into government.
target_region United States
Two decades ago, the spirit of innovation to develop software for better politics and civic engagement was so strong in organizations like Code for America and the Obama 2008 campaign that Congress funded a new executive agency to bring these ideas to government: the US Digital Service.
industry Government
Two decades ago, the spirit of innovation to develop software for better politics and civic engagement was so strong in organizations like Code for America and the Obama 2008 campaign that Congress funded a new executive agency to bring these ideas to government: the US Digital Service.
attribution Congress
Two decades ago, the spirit of innovation to develop software for better politics and civic engagement was so strong in organizations like Code for America and the Obama 2008 campaign that Congress funded a new executive agency to bring these ideas to government: the US Digital Service.
attribution the US Digital Service
Two decades ago, the spirit of innovation to develop software for better politics and civic engagement was so strong in organizations like Code for America and the Obama 2008 campaign that Congress funded a new executive agency to bring these ideas to government: the US Digital Service.
‎September 2025
At least 108 federal campaigns and committees have reported spending on AI-powered tools, including text messaging, audio generators, image generators, prospect research, and voter engagement.
general_metric 70 %
A September 2025 Pew survey of Americans found that more than 70% would think less of a candidate if they used AI to help write a speech.
organisation the US Federal Election Commission
Itemized expenditure disclosure data from the US Federal Election Commission, dating back to 2020, reveals at least $17m in disclosed spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates and campaigns.
financial $17 Stolen / Extorted Funds
Itemized expenditure disclosure data from the US Federal Election Commission, dating back to 2020, reveals at least $17m in disclosed spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates and campaigns.
financial $4.7 Stolen / Extorted Funds
For years, AmplifAI , which provides automated text messaging , essentially a new iteration on robocalling technology, was a dominant target of spending, soaking up $4.7m in campaign spending in the 2022 cycle alone.
organisation Triller
Spending on AmplifAI, now owned by the troubled media conglomerate Triller, seems to have tapered off in the years since 2022.
organisation Wesleyan Media Project
However, recent data from the Wesleyan Media Project shows that at least 164 political ads in this cycle have included AI-generated media, supported by at least $80m in ad spending.
financial $80 Stolen / Extorted Funds
However, recent data from the Wesleyan Media Project shows that at least 164 political ads in this cycle have included AI-generated media, supported by at least $80m in ad spending.
organisation Trump
The closest equivalent on the Republican side has been Campaign Nucleus , associated with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale .
organisation Brad Parscale
The closest equivalent on the Republican side has been Campaign Nucleus , associated with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale .
organisation OpenAI
Beginning with the AI behemoths, at least 80 federal campaigns and committees have reported spending with OpenAI since 2024.
organisation The Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is the largest overall buyer, with nearly $10,000 in reported expenses.
The AI-powered voter engagement tool has attracted six-figure spending from the Republican National Committee, multiple PACs aligned with Donald Trump, and five-figure investments from Mike Johnson, Kari Lake and other candidates.
organisation the California
Top individual users include the campaigns of Republicans Mike Lawler, John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, as well as the California Democrats Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu.
organisation Claude
At least 65 candidates or committees now report paying the Claude maker in 2026, up from essentially zero in previous years, with a nearly two-to-one Democrat-to-Republican ratio.
organisation Senate
Other major users are the Montana independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar and Jason Knapp, who lost a Democratic House primary in Virginia, and the Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola.
organisation House
Other major users are the Montana independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar and Jason Knapp, who lost a Democratic House primary in Virginia, and the Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola.
organisation RFK Jr
Just seven federal and two state-level candidates or committees have reported paying xAI, a total of about $5,000, the majority of which was spent by the presidential campaign of RFK Jr in 2024, but also includes Republicans Dave McCormick and Thomas Massie.
financial $300,000 Daisychain
The new rising Democratic solution for AI-powered text messaging is Daisychain , which has so far garnered about $300,000 in reported candidate spend in the 2026 cycle—up from only about $50,000 reported in 2024.
financial $375,000 Prompt.io
It is displacing the legacy Republican-serving texting vendor Prompt.io , which has retained about $375,000 in 2026 spending to date, down from more than $500,000 in the 2022 cycle.
organisation Uber
But it continues to be used: the A More Affordable California PAC sponsored by Uber has single-handedly spent more than $1m on Prompt.io in 2026.
organisation Prompt.io
But it continues to be used: the A More Affordable California PAC sponsored by Uber has single-handedly spent more than $1m on Prompt.io in 2026.
financial $1 Stolen / Extorted Funds
But it continues to be used: the A More Affordable California PAC sponsored by Uber has single-handedly spent more than $1m on Prompt.io in 2026.
organisation the California Democratic party
DonorAtlas—the AI-powered prospect research tool—sticks out for its usage in these states, sitting behind only Daisychain and OpenAI and buoyed up by nearly $4,000 in spending by the California Democratic party.
organisation ElevenLabs
We found just six federal candidates or committees reporting spending on the popular AI audio generator tool from ElevenLabs, with total spending of about $1,400 led by independent candidate for Colorado’s sixth congressional district Samir Witta.
organisation Sholdon Daniels
The AI image generator service Midjourney has five reported federal campaign or committee users reporting about $1,600, led by Sholdon Daniels, the Republican primary runner-up in the Texas 30th district.
financial $1,600 users
The AI image generator service Midjourney has five reported federal campaign or committee users reporting about $1,600, led by Sholdon Daniels, the Republican primary runner-up in the Texas 30th district.
financial $50,000 spending
The total spending is not huge: only about $50,000 reported, skewing slightly more Republican than Democratic.
financial $4,000 Arkansas
However, the largest individual user is the campaign of Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, who reported more than $4,000 in spend on Anthropic software in his June filing.
financial $100 firms
Combined, those two firms had less than $100 in reported spend across the four states.
‎September 17, 2026
Threat actors are not mentioned in the snippet, but rather a neutral topic is discussed: American political campaigns using AI tools.
‎October 2, 2026
Threat actors used AI-powered tools to target American political campaigns.
‎2026/10/02
US political campaigns are spending on AI tools, with some using them to facilitate structured dialogues and analyze stakeholder input.
organisation City
The US non-profit-built Talk to the City uses AI to analyze large datasets of stakeholder input.
organisation Remesh
The US startup Remesh has a commercial offering that uses AI to generate recommendations from dialogue, which has been tested in policy development scenarios.
organisation USDS
(The Trump administration repurposed the USDS to become the US Doge Service in 2025.)
organisation the US Doge Service
(The Trump administration repurposed the USDS to become the US Doge Service in 2025.)
organisation Guardian
How American Political Campaigns Are Using AI—and What They’re Spending on the Tools This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Guardian .
How Candidates Could Use AI for Good This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Guardian .
organisation Diet
The party has rapidly risen to win 12 seats in the Diet, and is explicitly following in the footsteps of the civic hackers in Taiwan’s “gov zero” movement, who won political influence in their fight for transparency.
organisation Team Mirai
For example, the newly founded Japanese political party Team Mirai has built a foundation for eliciting public input from voters at scale, in depth, and across the breadth of legislative policy issues.
organisation Stanford
The Stanford-affiliated deliberation.io uses AI to facilitate structured dialogues among thousands of participants and has been piloted for public listening sessions by the city of Washington DC .
organisation AI-Native Campaign Systems
The Democratic-aligned campaign tech investment firm launched a new fund targeting, in part, “AI-Native Campaign Systems” and “community-Led Messaging Platforms that surface authentic, bottom-up insights from real conversations”.
organisation The White House
The White House is posting slopaganda .
organisation Team Mirai party
Team Mirai party members have directly cited AI interviews from constituents during legislative committee hearings , published a synthesis of that input back for voters, and even amended their policy platform based on user input.
organisation CrownShy
One thing the AI-powered software of Team Mirai and CrownShy have in common is that they are open-source, meant for anyone to use.
organisation MIT
The MIT-affiliated Cortico project provides tools that surface under-heard community perspectives from recorded conversations, and is now organizing listening sessions at libraries across the country.
organisation Cortico
The MIT-affiliated Cortico project provides tools that surface under-heard community perspectives from recorded conversations, and is now organizing listening sessions at libraries across the country.
Tactical Metrics
Metrics
financial
17,000,000
Stolen / Extorted Funds
Itemized expenditure disclosure data from the US Federal Election Commission, dating back to 2020, reveals at least $17m in disclosed spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates and campaigns.
Metrics
financial
4,700,000
Stolen / Extorted Funds
For years, AmplifAI , which provides automated text messaging , essentially a new iteration on robocalling technology, was a dominant target of spending, soaking up $4.7m in campaign spending in the 2022 cycle alone.
Metrics
financial
80,000,000
Stolen / Extorted Funds
However, recent data from the Wesleyan Media Project shows that at least 164 political ads in this cycle have included AI-generated media, supported by at least $80m in ad spending.
Metrics
financial
300,000
Daisychain
The new rising Democratic solution for AI-powered text messaging is Daisychain , which has so far garnered about $300,000 in reported candidate spend in the 2026 cycle—up from only about $50,000 reported in 2024.
Metrics
financial
375,000
Prompt.Io
It is displacing the legacy Republican-serving texting vendor Prompt.io , which has retained about $375,000 in 2026 spending to date, down from more than $500,000 in the 2022 cycle.
Metrics
financial
1,000,000
Stolen / Extorted Funds
But it continues to be used: the A More Affordable California PAC sponsored by Uber has single-handedly spent more than $1m on Prompt.io in 2026.
Metrics
financial
1,600
Users
The AI image generator service Midjourney has five reported federal campaign or committee users reporting about $1,600, led by Sholdon Daniels, the Republican primary runner-up in the Texas 30th district.
Metrics
financial
50,000
Spending
The total spending is not huge: only about $50,000 reported, skewing slightly more Republican than Democratic.
Metrics
financial
4,000
Arkansas
However, the largest individual user is the campaign of Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, who reported more than $4,000 in spend on Anthropic software in his June filing.
Metrics
financial
100
Firms
Combined, those two firms had less than $100 in reported spend across the four states.
Intelligence Sources
Schneier on Security 2026-09-17
Schneier on Security 2026-10-02