New campaign finance disclosure data provides insight into how US political campaigns are allocating resources toward artificial intelligence technologies. Federal Election Commission records dating back to 2020 document at least $17 million in disclosed spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates and committees. Additional analysis of four states—California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington—offers localized spending patterns dating to 2022.
OpenAI and Anthropic represent the largest general-purpose AI platforms used by campaigns. At least 80 federal campaigns and committees have reported spending with OpenAI since 2024, totaling approximately $50,000, with the Republican National Committee accounting for nearly $10,000. Spending with OpenAI is distributed across candidates from both parties, with expenses typically categorized as office supplies, staff subscriptions, or research tools. Anthropic has rapidly expanded its campaign usage, with at least 65 candidates or committees reporting payments in 2026 compared to essentially zero in previous years. Notably, Anthropic shows a roughly two-to-one Democratic-to-Republican usage ratio, while Elon Musk’s xAI maintains minimal campaign adoption concentrated among Republicans.
Specialized political campaign AI vendors attract substantially larger expenditures. AmplifAI, providing automated text messaging capabilities, received $4.7 million in spending during the 2022 cycle before declining in subsequent years. Daisychain, offering AI-powered text messaging, has garnered approximately $300,000 in reported spending during 2026, up from $50,000 in 2024. On the Republican side, Campaign Nucleus, associated with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, has attracted six-figure spending from the Republican National Committee and multiple aligned political action committees.
At the state level across four studied states, campaigns reported at least $92,000 in spending on modern generative AI vendors across 108 candidates and committees since 2022. State-level spending has grown substantially, with 2026 reporting approximately ten times the AI expenditures documented in 2024. Spending on synthetic media generation tools remains minimal, with only six federal campaigns reporting spending on audio generation services and five on image generation tools.
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