--- title: Schneier on Security | daily.dev description: Campaign finance disclosure data reveals US political campaigns have spent at least $17m on AI vendors across 523 federal candidates since 2020, with OpenAI... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-ethiilnb5 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Schneier on Security | daily.dev og:description: Campaign finance disclosure data reveals US political campaigns have spent at least $17m on AI vendors across 523 federal candidates since 2020, with OpenAI... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-ethiilnb5 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/etHIILNB5.png og:image:alt: Schneier on Security og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Schneier on Security **[Schneier on Security](https://daily.dev/sources/schneier)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Campaign finance disclosure data reveals US political campaigns have spent at least $17m on AI vendors across 523 federal candidates since 2020, with OpenAI and Anthropic usage splitting along party lines (Claude skewing Democratic, ChatGPT and Grok skewing Republican). Political-specific AI tools like AmplifAI, Daisychain, and Campaign Nucleus dominate spending for voter outreach and texting, while deepfake-specific tools like ElevenLabs and Midjourney see surprisingly little disclosed spend despite heavy media attention on AI-generated ads. Disclosure data likely captures only a fraction of total AI usage, since PACs and consultants aren't required to report detailed expenditures. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much have US political campaigns spent on AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude? Federal campaign finance disclosures show at least $17 million in spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates since 2020. OpenAI usage totals about $50,000 across roughly 80 campaigns, skewing Republican, while Anthropic's Claude has drawn spending from about 65 candidates with a nearly two-to-one Democrat-to-Republican ratio, led by Senator Tom Cotton's campaign at over $4,000. _daily.dev surfaces reporting like this for developers tracking how AI tools get adopted and regulated across industries._ ### Why do Democratic and Republican political campaigns use different AI chatbot vendors? Democratic campaigns favor Anthropic's Claude while Republican campaigns lean toward OpenAI's ChatGPT and Elon Musk's xAI Grok, likely reflecting perceived political alignment: Anthropic has faced accusations of a liberal skew and tension with the Trump administration, while xAI caters more directly to conservative interests. Only about 12% of campaigns using either major vendor reported spending with both. _developers evaluating AI vendors for sensitive use cases can track these adoption and perception patterns on daily.dev._ ### How much are political campaigns spending on AI deepfake tools like ElevenLabs and Midjourney? Disclosed spending on synthetic media tools is surprisingly small: just six federal campaigns reported spending on ElevenLabs totaling about $1,400, and five campaigns reported about $1,600 on Midjourney. This contrasts with at least 164 political ads in the same cycle containing AI-generated media backed by over $80 million in ad spending, suggesting most such spending flows through undisclosed consultants and PACs rather than direct campaign vendor payments. _daily.dev helps developers follow how AI-generated media tooling intersects with disclosure and regulation debates._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What AI companies want for their midterm millions](https://daily.dev/posts/what-ai-companies-want-for-their-midterm-millions-obr7tmhs7) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI and the Future of American Politics](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-and-the-future-of-american-politics-izjovf99g) · Security Boulevard · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [The era of AI persuasion in elections is about to begin](https://daily.dev/posts/the-era-of-ai-persuasion-in-elections-is-about-to-begin-yuhdaujpz) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-ethiilnb5) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Schneier on Security","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-ethiilnb5","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-ethiilnb5"},"datePublished":"2026-10-02T11:04:27.702Z","dateModified":"2026-10-02T11:04:50.411Z","description":"Campaign finance disclosure data reveals US political campaigns have spent at least $17m on AI vendors across 523 federal candidates since 2020, with OpenAI...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Schneier on Security","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Schneier on Security","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0aZDA7eZ--/f_auto/v1758461069/logos/schneier","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/schneier"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-ethiilnb5","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,openai,anthropic","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Schneier on Security","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/schneier"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Schneier on Security"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-ethiilnb5#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much have US political campaigns spent on AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Federal campaign finance disclosures show at least $17 million in spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates since 2020. OpenAI usage totals about $50,000 across roughly 80 campaigns, skewing Republican, while Anthropic's Claude has drawn spending from about 65 candidates with a nearly two-to-one Democrat-to-Republican ratio, led by Senator Tom Cotton's campaign at over $4,000. daily.dev surfaces reporting like this for developers tracking how AI tools get adopted and regulated across industries."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why do Democratic and Republican political campaigns use different AI chatbot vendors?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Democratic campaigns favor Anthropic's Claude while Republican campaigns lean toward OpenAI's ChatGPT and Elon Musk's xAI Grok, likely reflecting perceived political alignment: Anthropic has faced accusations of a liberal skew and tension with the Trump administration, while xAI caters more directly to conservative interests. Only about 12% of campaigns using either major vendor reported spending with both. developers evaluating AI vendors for sensitive use cases can track these adoption and perception patterns on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How much are political campaigns spending on AI deepfake tools like ElevenLabs and Midjourney?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Disclosed spending on synthetic media tools is surprisingly small: just six federal campaigns reported spending on ElevenLabs totaling about $1,400, and five campaigns reported about $1,600 on Midjourney. This contrasts with at least 164 political ads in the same cycle containing AI-generated media backed by over $80 million in ad spending, suggesting most such spending flows through undisclosed consultants and PACs rather than direct campaign vendor payments. daily.dev helps developers follow how AI-generated media tooling intersects with disclosure and regulation debates."}}]} ```