AI Use In '26 Election Campaigns Is Plowing New Ground

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/06/2026) Artificial intelligence is being used by campaigns in the 2026 election cycle. It is new territory and its usage is plowing new ground.

As campaigns are taking the AI wagons into the new frontier, they are crunching numbers, using those tools to pinpoint donations, scraping data, and shaping messages. Where those wagons are going, the consultants aren't sure. But by the end of the cycle, it'll be a different story. AI will have carved out its roles by the time the 2028 presidential race launches.

“It’s kind of like we’re all in 1822 moving to Illinois, and everybody finds a piece of farmland and a river, and then we begin plowing and nobody’s ever been here before, and we’re raising wheat and trying to get it back to New York City where we can sell it,” said Mark Grebner, of Practical Political Data.

He said AI is setting the guardrails that will separate the wheat from the chaff. Initially, the questions typed into large language models can return useless information that can be borderline sycophantic.

“I don’t think that AI at this point is much use for big campaign strategizing,” he said.

It is the little uses of AI that make it the game-changer, and it is the user that benefits.

“If you apply yourself to it, you can find a way to use AI in a novel way and do whatever it is, faster, better, cheaper, more ingeniously,” he said.

From the siting of lawn signs and mapping efficient door knocking routes, to compiling email lists and fundraiser party planning, he said it is up to the user to determine AI use.

“None of these things will revolutionize anything in 2026. They’re all just basically nice ways you could put it to work,” Grebner said.

When it comes to the tools themselves, he said there isn’t a standard yet for how AI will be used in elections and campaigns. He said AI was changing daily.

“This is an unstable frontier where the rules aren’t established yet, and the economics are changing,” Grebner said.

What exists now in the AI space isn't clearly defined and standard models are still being tested. Some political operatives, like political consultant Elena Greer, are customizing AI tools as needed to make campaign staff more efficient.

“AI is slowly being integrated into the overall political ecosystem,” Greer said.

The problems are the standalone AI tools are still incredibly fragmented. It can take several subscriptions to different tools to get what is needed. Since this is all brand new, everything hasn't been standardized into one platform, yet.

Some may be hesitant to use the technology, Greer acknowledges. Some may not trust it. Others may believe it will replace workers.

“I think these tools need to be seen as a supplement to make you better at your job,” she said.

She said to make the transition to AI easier, there were AI systems being laid over existing platforms to be used to compile data lists, sift through databases, and pull trends. Even traditional search engines, like Google, have implemented AI.

Greer said it's all about being more efficient.

“Imagine by 2028 you have a voter file, and it’s able to web-scrape information on that voter, like the person’s social media, and then custom tailor their messaging," she said.

Going into 2028, the large language models will be more efficient and some of the rules will be laid out from the 2026 cycle in ways that may not have been thought about. Smaller campaigns will use it to multitask in a way they couldn't before. Firms and campaigns likely won't find the switch to AI as jarring as adjusting to social media because, as Greer said, “the difference between prompting ChatGPT or doing a traditional Google search feels the same."

Implementing these new tools is coming slowly. The changes to campaigning in 2026 won't be earth-shattering this cycle, she said, but said Greer said she sees “things will flip” in 2028 as the tools get better.

Western Michigan University Communication and Social Robotics Lab Co-Director Chad Edwards agreed but he said the new frontier of the AI revolution needed rules or you could get more people being sued for the creation of deepfakes.

Edwards said AI will be a huge disrupter for election cycles in the future.

“If you’re a campaign, and you’re not using AI, I don’t know how you’re going to survive," he said “The speed and scale at which AI can do things for you is dramatically shifting the landscape.”

There are several issues that he said needed to be addressed while those rules were being set and there were guardrails needed, like the law requiring disclosure of AI in political advertisements.

He said the true damage of deepfakes is much deeper than what is done to a political campaign.

"It’s those side effects, like erosion of trust, for example. If we see a deep fake video, well, then I can’t trust the news at all, because I saw a deep fake,” he said.

The next issue is the data inputted into the algorithm or large language model or the AI. Not every bit of information coming out is good information.

“Garbage in, garbage out," Edwards said.

He said campaigns should use AI in an ethical way. If done correctly and transparently, AI could be used to build trust, authenticity and credibility of a candidate. He said the human element needed to be left to accomplish this and it was those human touches that shouldn't change. That portion would also be pitted against the temptation to make a mad dash with AI just to win an election.

“AI is going to shape how voters interpret candidates, issues, their world, their problems, their reality, just like the media has always had those same impacts," Edwards said. “Campaigns need to be mindful of how they are using it."