Campaign finance filings show at least $17 million spent on AI tools by U.S. political campaigns since 2020

Federal Election Commission itemized disclosures dating back to 2020 show at least $17 million in spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates and committees. The data spans 2020–2026 and includes expenditures from candidates, parties, and committees.

At least 80 federal campaigns and committees reported spending with OpenAI since 2024, totaling about $50,000, with a slight Republican skew. The Republican National Committee reported nearly $10,000 in expenses. Top individual users include Republicans Mike Lawler, John Kennedy, and Bill Cassidy, and Democrats Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu. Most expenses are categorized as office expenses, ChatGPT subscriptions, or research tools.

Anthropic usage surged in 2026, with at least 65 candidates or committees reporting payments, up from essentially zero in prior years. Spending skews nearly two-to-one Democratic, led by Tom Cotton’s campaign, which reported more than $4,000 in Anthropic software expenses in a June filing. Other major users include Seth Bodnar, Jason Knapp, and Mary Peltola.

xAI usage is minimal and concentrated on the political right, with seven federal and two state-level candidates or committees reporting about $5,000 in total spend, mostly by RFK Jr.’s 2024 presidential campaign.

AI-powered text-messaging vendors show concentrated spending. AmplifAI, once dominant, saw $4.7 million in 2022 cycle spending but appears to have tapered off. Its replacement on the Democratic side, Daisychain, garnered about $300,000 in reported candidate spend in the 2026 cycle, with more than half from Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan Senate campaign. On the Republican side, Campaign Nucleus, tied to Brad Parscale, attracted six-figure spending from the RNC, Trump-aligned PACs, and candidates including Mike Johnson and Kari Lake, displacing legacy vendor Prompt.io, which retained about $375,000 in 2026 spending.

At the state level across California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington, at least $92,000 in spending attributable to modern generative AI vendors has been reported since 2022, spread across 108 candidates and committees. Growth has been rapid: 2026 state-level AI spending is already about ten times the total reported for all of 2024.

Disclosures capture only a fraction of campaign AI use. Spending by consultants, media firms, PACs, and independent committees—none of which are required to disclose detailed expenditure reports—likely dwarfs candidate-level disclosures. Wesleyan Media Project data indicates at least 164 political ads in the current cycle included AI-generated media, backed by at least $80 million in ad spending, underscoring a transparency gap in campaign AI usage.