Itemized expenditure disclosure data from the US Federal Election Commission "reveals at least $17m in disclosed spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates and campaigns." That single figure frames a campaign season in which generative AI and specialized political-AI tools have moved from experiment to line item.
Federal campaign disclosures: $17m across 523 campaigns
The disclosures, covering filings back to 2020, show at least $17 million in reported spending on AI vendors tied to 523 federal candidates and committees. The data also reveal that candidate and committee filings capture only part of the picture: the Wesleyan Media Project reports at least 164 political ads this cycle that included AI-generated media and that those ads were supported by at least $80 million in ad spending, indicating substantial AI-related expenditure outside the itemized candidate disclosures.
OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI: who pays whom
Among general-purpose generative-AI vendors, three firms stand out in the filings.
- OpenAI: At least 80 federal campaigns and committees reported spending since 2024, totaling about $50,000. The Republican National Committee reported nearly $10,000 in OpenAI-related expenses. Individual campaign users named in filings include Mike Lawler, John Kennedy, Bill Cassidy, Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu. Most entries are for office expenses, ChatGPT subscriptions for staff, or research tools.
- Anthropic: Usage jumped in 2026. At least 65 candidates or committees reported payments in 2026, with a roughly two-to-one Democrat-to-Republican ratio. The largest single reported Anthropic user is Tom Cotton, whose campaign reported more than $4,000 in June; other named users include Seth Bodnar, Jason Knapp and Mary Peltola. Only about 12% of campaigns using Claude or ChatGPT reported paying both vendors.
- xAI: Usage is limited and concentrated on the right. Seven federal and two state-level campaigns or committees reported roughly $5,000 total, most of which came from the RFK Jr presidential campaign in 2024. Other reported users include Dave McCormick and Thomas Massie.
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End the scrambleSpecialized political vendors: AmplifAI, Daisychain, Campaign Nucleus, and Prompt.io
Spending is larger and older with vendors that tailor AI to campaign operations such as texting, prospecting and voter engagement. AmplifAI, a long-standing provider of automated text messaging, accounted for about $4.7 million in the 2022 cycle and was used by campaigns for Mark Kelly, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Adam Schiff; the firm is now owned by Triller and reported spending appears to have tapered since 2022.
Newer players show rapid uptake: Daisychain, an AI-powered texting vendor favored by Democratic campaigns, has about $300,000 in reported candidate spend in the 2026 cycle, up from roughly $50,000 in 2024, with more than half of 2026 spending coming from Abdul El‑Sayed’s Senate campaign in Michigan.
On the Republican side, Campaign Nucleus—associated with Brad Parscale—has drawn six-figure spending from the Republican National Committee, multiple PACs aligned with Donald Trump, and five-figure buys by Mike Johnson and Kari Lake. Legacy Republican-serving Prompt.io appears smaller than it was in 2022 but remains active: Prompt.io shows about $375,000 in 2026 spending to date, down from more than $500,000 in 2022. Notable Prompt.io expenditures include more than $1 million by the A More Affordable California PAC (sponsored by Uber), and users such as Michael Minogue, Ché Ahn and the Super PAC Neighbors for a Better Colorado.
State-level picture: California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington
Four states’ disclosure records—California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington—offer a narrower but fast-changing view. Since 2022, at least $92,000 of spending confidently attributable to modern generative-AI vendors appears in those state filings, distributed across at least 108 candidates and committees. The pace has accelerated: the 2026 state-level reported spending is already about ten times the total reported for all of 2024.
Among state-level vendors, Daisychain, OpenAI and DonorAtlas show notable use. DonorAtlas—an AI-powered prospecting tool—registered nearly $4,000 in spending by the California Democratic party. By contrast, items tied to synthetic audio and image generation are lightly reported: ElevenLabs shows six federal campaign or committee users totaling about $1,400 (led by Samir Witta), while Midjourney appears on five federal filings totaling roughly $1,600 (led by Sholdon Daniels). Across the four states, those two firms together reported under $100.
What this means for candidates, political consultants, and independent committees
Candidates and campaigns: Many campaigns report using general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT and Claude for office work, subscriptions and research, while others are sinking sizable funds into targeted voter-engagement platforms like Daisychain and Campaign Nucleus.
Political consultants and media firms: The Wesleyan Media Project’s finding of at least $80 million supporting AI-including ads highlights that consultants, media firms and outside vendors—who are not always required to disclose itemized expenditures—likely account for much of the AI-driven advertising and creative work.
Independent committees and PACs: Large buys by PACs and independent committees (for example, the A More Affordable California PAC’s $1 million Prompt.io spend) show that non-candidate actors are major vectors for campaign AI spending and may be where the bulk of AI-enabled persuasion occurs.
The filings make clear that AI is no longer a novelty on campaigns’ balance sheets, but they also underline how partial the record is: candidate and committee disclosure reports are "just the tip of the iceberg," and with a large fraction of cycle spending concentrated in the final weeks before November, much remains to be seen about how campaigns will ultimately leverage AI and what impact its use will have on voters’ decisions.
