New campaign finance disclosure data shines a light on which US political campaigns are using AI tools and how much they are spending on them.
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they → shin → them
Candidates’, parties’, and committees’ spending reveals that AI is fast becoming an essential tool of politics.
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AI → reveal → politics
The candidates themselves are quiet about how they are using the technology in their own campaigns.
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they → use → campaigns
It’s a sensitive issue that we have been tracking closely since we started writing our book, Rewiring Democracy, which examined how AI is beginning to influence politics.
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AI → ’ → politics
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.
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they → find → speech
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.
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data → date → candidates
Data from four states, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington, provides a more localized picture going back to 2022.
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Data → provide → 2022
Beginning with the AI behemoths, at least 80 federal campaigns and committees have reported spending with OpenAI since 2024.
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campaigns → begin → 2024
The total spending is not huge: only about $50,000 reported, skewing slightly more Republican than Democratic.
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spending → report → Democratic
The Republican National Committee is the largest overall buyer, with nearly $10,000 in reported expenses.
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Committee → report → expenses
Top individual users include the campaigns of Republicans Mike Lawler, John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, as well as California Democrats Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu.
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users → include → Lawler
Most of these expenses are listed as office expenses, subscriptions to ChatGPT for staff, or research tools, rather than as specific political services.
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Most → list → services
The company’s policies prohibit some political uses of their ChatGPT tool.
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policies → prohibit → tool
OpenAI’s biggest competitor, Anthropic, has rapidly built a similar level of usage, but with a different split.
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competitor → build → split
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.
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candidates → report → ratio
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.
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who → report → filing
Other major users are Montana Independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar and Jason Knapp, who lost a Democratic House primary in Virginia, and Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola.
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who → lose → Virginia
Candidates use either Claude or ChatGPT, rarely both, according to the disclosures.
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Candidates → use → disclosures
Only about 12% of campaigns or committees using either tool reported expenditures to both vendors.
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% → use → vendors
The Democratic lean of Anthropic usage may reflect the company’s alleged liberal skew and clashes with the Trump administration.
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lean → reflect → administration
In contrast, Elon Musk’s xAI caters to Republican interests and, accordingly, its meager usage comes almost entirely from the political right.
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usage → cater → right
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.
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majority → report → McCormick
More dollars go to the vendors specializing in political campaign applications of AI.
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dollars → go → AI
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.
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which → provide → cycle
It was used heavily by Democratic candidates including Mark Kelly, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Adam Schiff.
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It → use → Kelly
Now owned by the troubled media conglomerate Triller, spending on AmplifAI seems to have tapered off in the years since 2022.
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spending → own → 2022
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.
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which → rise → 2024
More than half of this year’s spending comes from the Senate campaign of Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
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half → come → Michigan
The closest equivalent on the Republican side has been Campaign Nucleus, associated with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.
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equivalent → associate → Parscale
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.
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tool → power → Johnson
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.
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which → displace → cycle
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.
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Pac → continue → 2026
Republican Massachusetts gubernatorial nominee Michael Minogue has been a recurring customer, as has failed Republican California gubernatorial candidate Ché Ahn and Republican-aligned Super Pac Neighbors for a Better Colorado.
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Ahn → recur → Colorado
At the state level
At the state level, the AI spending is smaller but growing fast.
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spending → grow → level
Across the four states studied, we found a total of at least $92,000 in spending confidently attributable to modern generative AI vendors since 2022.
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we → study → 2022
The spending is spread across at least 108 candidates and committees.
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spending → spread → candidates
The growth has been explosive; there has already been about ten times the amount of state-level AI spending reported in 2026 as there was in all of 2024.
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growth → report → 2024
Much of the state spending mirrors federal patterns.
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Much → mirror → patterns
Daisychain again has the highest overall spend, and OpenAI and Claude dominate among the general-purpose AI vendors.
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OpenAI → have → vendors
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.
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DonorAtlas → power → party
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
