Newly disclosed spending records show American political campaigns have poured at least $17 million into AI technology vendors since 2020. The numbers come from federal and state-level reports, and they point to a shift: AI has moved from an experiment to a routine part of how candidates and parties run their operations.
The records include 523 federal candidates and campaigns, drawn from federal filings, along with state-level reports from California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington. Spending at the state level increased sharply: about ten times as much was reported in 2026 as in all of 2024.
OpenAI Leads the Spending
By dollar value, OpenAI sits atop the list of vendors, with at least 80 federal campaigns and committees having reported spending since 2024. The total amount spent remains small, just roughly $50,000, yet the spending pattern stands out. The expenses show up as office expenses, subscriptions to ChatGPT for staff, or research tools.
The Republican National Committee sits atop the list of OpenAI customers by spending, having reported expenses of nearly $10,000. Among the individual top users are Republicans Mike Lawler, John Kennedy, and Bill Cassidy, joined by California Democrats Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu.
The costs are recorded as office expenses, subscriptions to ChatGPT for staff, or research tools, instead of being labeled as specific political services. Certain political uses of the ChatGPT tool are barred by the company’s policies.
Anthropic Draws Democrats More Than Republicans
The creators of the Claude AI assistant, Anthropic, increased their campaign spending this year. At least 65 candidates or committees now say they paid Anthropic in 2026, compared to almost nothing in earlier years.
Democrats dominate Anthropic’s biggest users, with the spending split running close to two-to-one in their favor. The Republican senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, leads all individual users with more than $4,000 in spend on Anthropic software shown in his June filing. Seth Bodnar, the Montana Independent Senate candidate, and Jason Knapp, who lost a Democratic House primary in Virginia, round out the other major users. Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola is also among the platform’s most prominent users.
Of all campaigns or committees that used either Claude or ChatGPT, only a small fraction — roughly 12% — reported spending details to both vendors.
xAI Is Small But Right-Leaning
xAI from Elon Musk has drawn little use, nearly all from the political right. A total of seven federal and two state-level candidates or committees have reported paying for it, amounting to roughly $5,000.
Most of the money went to the presidential campaign of RFK Jr in 2024, with Republicans Dave McCormick and Thomas Massie both contributing to xAI spending.
Messaging Tools and Deepfakes Lag Behind
Spending on AmplifAI, the automated text messaging provider, was a major focus of past funding rounds. The company’s share of funding has dropped off since 2022.
Daisychain has emerged as the new Democratic solution for AI-powered text messaging. It has so far garnered about $300,000 in reported candidate spend in the 2026 cycle, up from about $50,000 reported in 2024. More than half of this year’s spending comes from the Senate campaign of Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
Campaign Nucleus, associated with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, has attracted six-figure spending from the Republican National Committee and multiple Pacs aligned with Donald Trump. Prompt.io retains about $375,000 in 2026 spending, down from more than $500,000 in the 2022 cycle.
The A More Affordable California Pac sponsored by Uber has spent more than $1 million on Prompt.io in 2026.
State-Level Spending Explodes
Across the four states studied, at least $92,000 in spending is confidently attributable to modern generative AI vendors since 2022. The spending is spread across at least 108 candidates and committees.
The AI-powered prospect research tool DonorAtlas is a standout in these states, ranking just behind Daisychain and OpenAI. Its standing there has been built up by nearly $4,000 in spending from the California Democratic party.
Only a small number of candidates say they have spent money on AI tools built for making synthetic audio and video, which is sometimes called “deepfakes.” A total of six federal candidates or committees have disclosed this kind of spending.
Comparing the Big Vendors
| Vendor | 2026 Spending | Top Users | Party Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | About $50,000 | Lawler, Kennedy, Cassidy, Khanna, Lieu | Slightly more Republican |
| Anthropic | At least 65 users | Cotton, Bodnar, Knapp, Peltola | Nearly two-to-one Democrat-to-Republican |
| xAI | About $5,000 | RFK Jr, McCormick, Massie | Almost entirely Republican |
| Prompt.io | About $375,000 | A More Affordable California Pac | Not stated |
Where the paper stands
The paper backs narrow rules forcing AI vendors to disclose safety failures they hid and is against federal licensing or slowdowns that would freeze today’s leaders in place and lock out challengers. The disclosure gap among campaigns — some reporting spending on the same tools used by others in the same party — shows the system is still developing. The paper wants transparency, not a heavy hand.
OpenAI sits atop the spending list, with at least 80 federal campaigns reporting expenses of about $50,000. Anthropic draws Democrats more than Republicans, while xAI draws nearly all its money from the political right. The spending records show AI has moved from an experiment to a routine part of campaign operations, but the public deserves to know which tools are being used and why.
The paper’s position is clear: regulate for harm, not for control, and keep the door open for new entrants.
Key Facts Box
- Total AI vendor spending by campaigns since 2020: at least $17 million
- Federal candidates and campaigns reporting: 523
- State-level reports covered: California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Washington
- 2026 state-level spending vs. 2024: about ten times as much
- OpenAI total spending: about $50,000
- Anthropic users in 2026: at least 65
- xAI spending: about $5,000
- Prompt.io 2026 spending: about $375,000
- State-level spending across four states: at least $92,000
- Candidates and committees reporting state-level spending: at least 108
- Claude/ChatGPT users reporting details to both vendors: roughly 12%
What the numbers reveal is a distinct tendency among party lines: Democrats lean toward Anthropic, while Republicans favor OpenAI and xAI.
The reports raise a question about openness. Certain campaigns disclosed spending on AI tools, while others failed to do so, even though those same tools served the same party. This inconsistency points to a system that is still developing.
It is now plain that AI is no longer a novelty in politics. The real question is whether the public receives a complete account of how that money is being spent.
Source material: “New campaign disclosures reveal how much American political campaigns spend on AI tools,” The Guardian.
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