Political Campaigns Pour $137 Million Into AI-Generated Ads as Midterm Elections Heat Up
10 Sources
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$137 Million in A.I.-Generated Ads Flood the Midterms
It was an unlikely scene: New York's mayor and governor appeared to be strolling through a park and gardening together in a sun-drenched suburban yard, promoting a new drug -- a "political delusion pill," they called it -- to help voters overcome fears about affordability and crime. "Side effects
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$137 Million Has Been Spent on AI-Generated Ads Ahead of Midterms. Only 27% Included a Disclaimer
Republicans are leading the spending on AI-generated political ads, while Democrats are more wary of potential backlash. U.S. political ads have officially entered their AI slop era. Political campaigns and groups have spent more than $137 million airing ads created at least partly with AI tools
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Oregon candidate caught in national wave of AI political attacks
Why it matters: Fai's team provided OJP screenshots showing the flag was right-side up, but the viral moment signals how AI-assisted attack ads are putting words in candidates' mouths and creating realistic but fabricated scenes. * It's a phenomenon testing election laws here and across the
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Political campaigns have poured $137 million on AI-made ads ahead of a crucial midterm -- after spending virtually nothing last election cycle | Fortune
Just two years ago, ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the use of AI in political ads was nearly unheard of. Today, it's a nine-figure budget line. A new report from the Wesleyan University-based research group Wesleyan Media Project found more than $137 million in spending on 220 campaign
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Political Candidates Spending An Obscene Amount of Money on AI-Generated Election Slop
Whether as short-form slop Reels or the data centers that spit them out, Americans are absolutely sick of AI. Their elected officials, however, are going all-in -- both embracing gobs of money from tech lobbying arms, and increasingly even embracing the tech to churn out attack ads to tarnish their
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Deciding with fake images: More candidates are using AI in political ads to get your vote
At least 220 ads -- mostly Republican -- generated or enhanced with artificial intelligence have circulated in the lead-up to the midterms, at a cost of almost $137 million. South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette appears distressed in a gloomy room as she undergoes a polygraph test that ends with
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Pennsylvania one of the first states to require disclosures on AI-generated ads
Pennsylvania is becoming one of the first states to require disclosures on artificial intelligence-generated advertisements. On Thursday, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the bill into law, which takes effect in 60 days. "If you see an advertisement on Facebook or the internet somewhere and it was
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The AI attack-ad nightmare is coming true
Why it matters: The warnings about deepfakes are coming true. Election laws haven't kept pace with a world where campaigns can put words in opponents' mouths and create realistic-looking scenes that didn't happen. The Wesleyan Media Project found $137 million had been spent on 220 AI-generated ads
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$137 million in AI-generated ads flood the midterms
It was an unlikely scene: New York's mayor and governor appeared to be strolling through a park and gardening together in a sun-drenched suburban yard, promoting a new drug -- a "political delusion pill," they called it -- to help voters overcome fears about affordability and crime. "Side effects
[10]
AI-generated political ads have appeared in Pennsylvania. Are these kind of ads allowed?
Now, with less than two weeks before Election Day, the Pennsylvania governor's race has taken an artificial intelligence turn. An AI-generated ad by Stacy Garrity's campaign has joined a handful of others around the country in major races, and the use of AI has raised eyebrows. It's leading to
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Political campaigns and groups have spent over $137 million on AI-generated ads ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, marking a dramatic surge from less than $50,000 in 2024. Republican campaigns dominate this spending at 81%, while only 27% of these ads disclose their AI origins, raising concerns about misinformation and deepfake technology in politics.
Republican Campaigns Lead Unprecedented Surge in AI-Generated Political Advertising
Political campaigns and groups have collectively spent more than $137 million on AI-generated ads ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, according to research from the Wesleyan Media Project
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. This represents a staggering increase from the 2024 election cycle, when spending on AI-generated political content totaled less than $50,0002
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. The surge marks a pivotal shift in how political advertising operates, with artificial intelligence now accounting for nearly a quarter of all midterm political advertising spending, which totals approximately $565 million across all U.S. house and senate campaigns5
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Source: Futurism
Republican campaigns and political action groups have driven this trend, accounting for 81% of the identified AI-generated ads and a commanding 88% of total spending
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. The Wesleyan Media Project has identified 220 political ads across 34 states that were created with AI technology this year, though researchers acknowledge the actual number is likely higher since only 30 states require AI disclosures for political ads2
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.Lack of Disclaimers Raises Concerns About Deepfake Technology
A troubling finding from the research reveals that only 27% of AI-generated political content included a disclaimer informing viewers about the use of artificial intelligence
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. This lack of transparency has intensified concerns about misleading or fabricated content in political campaigns. Nearly half of the AI-generated ads identified by researchers feature deepfake depictions of real politicians, with many attempting to connect local candidates to prominent national Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez2
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Source: NYT
One particularly aggressive example comes from Make Oklahoma Great Again, which produced an ad showing the Democratic candidate for governor embracing Hillary Clinton in an AI-generated scene. The group spent more than $200,000 promoting the ad on television programming in Oklahoma, with no disclosure that it was AI-made
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. Other AI-assisted attack ads have gone even further, including one showing an AI-generated version of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, laughing at cards reading "Death to America" and "Celebrate 9/11"1
.Democrats Face Reputational Risks While Republicans Embrace Technology
Democratic candidates and groups have been notably more cautious, sponsoring just 12% of identified AI-generated ads
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. This hesitancy stems from reputational risks associated with using technology that Democratic voters want regulated. "Democratic candidates and groups face more reputational risk when using a tool that they are arguing should be regulated," explained Travis N. Ridout, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project and professor at Washington State University1
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.Some Democrats are actively positioning themselves against AI in political campaigns. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, released an ad ending with the words "Made by humans. Not AI"
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. This approach reflects broader Democratic concerns about how AI-generated political content could undermine election integrity and voter trust.AI Technology Transforms Campaign Economics and Production
Beyond deepfake technology and attack ads, AI has fundamentally altered the economics of political advertising. Fred N. Davis III, founder of Strategic Perception and a 50-year veteran of campaign advertising, described planning an ad that would have cost nearly $2 million before AI, requiring hundreds of actors, wardrobe departments, catered meals, and extensive production crews. Using AI, he expects to reduce the total cost to approximately $200,000
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. AI-generated videos have become an alternative to stock footage, creating scenes instantly and for a fraction of traditional costs without viewers necessarily detecting the fabrication1
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Source: Axios
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Regulatory Scrutiny and Legal Challenges Emerge Across States
The proliferation of AI in political campaigns has prompted regulatory scrutiny across multiple states. Oregon Senate Bill 1571, passed in 2024, requires political campaign communications to disclose AI-manipulated images, audio, or video realistically depicting someone saying or doing something that never happened, with violators facing civil penalties of up to $10,000
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. Currently, four states have laws prohibiting certain uses of AI-generated deepfakes in political ads, while 27 more, including Oregon, require some form of disclosure about their use3
. No federal law specifically regulates AI-generated political content3
.In New York, the State Democratic Party filed a complaint with the state's Board of Elections against Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor, accusing his campaign of violating state law requiring disclosures on political ads containing deceptive AI-generated content
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. Since April, Blakeman's campaign has posted at least 22 AI-generated ads on social media2
. His campaign has pushed back, arguing that satirical ads do not require disclosures2
.Long-Term Implications for Voter Trust and Election Integrity
Researchers warn that the consequences of AI-generated ads extend beyond individual elections and threaten to reshape the psychology of political campaigns. "For voters, there's a temptation to say, 'I don't know what to believe anymore, and so I'm not going to believe anything,'" Ridout explained. "That makes voting on the basis of facts quite difficult"
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. Candidates may increasingly spend time combating misinformation rather than sharing their platforms, while voter skepticism about all political content could grow even when viewing legitimate campaign materials4
."I think what we're seeing with AI has surprised even us," said Erika Franklin Fowler, professor at Wesleyan University and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project. "AI can be used in so many different ways that it creates new opportunities for advertising. Some of the ways in which AI is used, honestly, if there wasn't a disclaimer on the ad, it would be hard to know that AI was there"
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. As the midterm elections approach, voters can expect the volume of AI-generated political content to continue rising, testing both existing regulations and public trust in political communication.References
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