Artificial intelligence is dramatically lowering the cost of political advertising, allowing campaigns to churn out attack ads, memes and other targeted messages at a pace that would have been prohibitively expensive just a few years ago. Campaign operatives can now use generative AI to produce in minutes or hours what once required days of work by teams of writers, voice talent, video crews and production staff.
The shift is turning political creative from an expensive campaign asset into something closer to disposable content, potentially giving candidates and outside groups the ability to flood voters with more messages than ever before. While the exact number is difficult to pin down, the ad-tracking firm AdImpact identified 29 campaign ads in federal and gubernatorial contests that disclosed using AI content as of two weeks ago. The Wesleyan Media Project, which also counted ads that did not make AI disclosures, has identified at least 164 AI-influenced ads this cycle.
But the jury is still out on whether the use of AI for campaign messaging can help produce the ultimate objective: an election victory. Veteran Republican consultant Jesse Hunt pointed to the creative and economic appeals of using AI in political advertising, saying it allows campaigns to produce more content in varying styles more cost-effectively. Democratic strategist Chris Moyer said AI gives campaigns more tools for less cost, describing a democratizing effect on resources that once required significant budgets.
Will Ritter, a longtime Republican ad maker and media strategist who co-founded the creative advertising and political strategy agency Poolhouse, said his firm went from doing basically nothing with AI last cycle to most of its ads now having some AI component. He called the technology really cool and noted it allows many people to make almost anything. But he cautioned that campaigns still need to know what they are doing with the tools. Ritter said his agency has professionals who know how to use and integrate them, and they understand the point is to have a good ad that communicates a message, not to show off cool visual tech.
Campaign veterans say that if you are not using AI to produce messaging content and other key tasks, including voter outreach, you are already behind. Ciro Riccardi, a top campaign adviser for Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, said the congressman is running the most organized and sophisticated congressional campaign in the country and utilizes every legitimate tool that helps the team improve productivity. Any campaign that does not would be foolish, he said. Lawler is running for re-election in a key swing district in New York City's northern suburbs that Democrats are targeting as they aim to win back the House majority. His campaign is one of hundreds across the country that have reported spending on AI technology vendors in their Federal Election Commission disclosure reports. Riccardi noted that Lawler's 2026 re-election team will spend more money on pizza for volunteers than it will on AI tools.
Yet early examples suggest that viral AI-generated content does not automatically translate into electoral success. Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve of Massachusetts grabbed attention in February with an AI-generated radio ad that used an AI-generated version of Gov. Maura Healey's voice making disparaging comments about her administration and the economy. The deepfake raised questions about the legal limits of AI technology in elections. Thirty-one states have enacted laws regulating political deepfakes, but the Federal Election Commission has not implemented any AI rulemaking. The attention surrounding the ad appeared to boost Shortsleeve, a business executive and former acting general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in his bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. He was defeated in the September primary in a landslide by former medical device executive Mike Minogue.
In Los Angeles, reality TV star and online influencer-turned mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt used AI-generated videos that went viral to significantly boost his visibility and his campaign's online momentum. The videos humorously and dramatically portrayed him as a superhero saving a dystopian, burning Los Angeles, while depicting incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass and other officials as villains. The videos grabbed millions of views on social media platforms like X, TikTok and Instagram, and appeared to help turn Pratt from a longshot mayoral candidate into one of the three top contenders. But the AI-generated messaging was not enough to help Pratt, a Republican who ran for mayor as an independent, advance to the general election.