"Hey ChatGPT, which candidate for Congress should I vote for?"

Do you want to get your blood pumping first thing in the morning?

If so, go into whichever Artificial Intelligence (AI) client you prefer and type in something along the lines of: “Based on what you know about me, create a voter guide for me to help decide which candidates to vote for in the upcoming election for (fill in the blank).”

Depending on how you use your AI, this could be a pretty shocking revelation. Full disclosure: almost all AI clients will refuse to tell you “who” to vote for or which candidate is “better.” However, even a beginning user can phrase a question in such a way that AI will give them the information they want.

I have been working in campaigns for over 30 years and this is the biggest seismic change I have ever seen. If you are not taking this into consideration as your craft your campaign messaging and advertising strategy, then you are already behind the 8-ball. Despite the fact that I have been working in campaigns for over 30 years, the fact is that I too am just as clueless as the average voter on who to vote for in county and local elections . . . especially primaries. This isn’t because I am uninformed or not engaged. It is because how these campaigns message to voters. When I previously lived in California, I was actually relieved to get my ballot in the mail because I needed time to do Google. Community College Board? District 17 Judge? Tax Assessor? Unless they were a client of mine, I had no idea who most of these people were and without a Party label, I was just guessing unless I looked up each office and each candidate. 

But, who has the time to Google over 60 elected offices, tax questions, and ballot proposals for their ballot? God forbid you are voting in person . . . then you are more often than not shooting in the dark.

How is this changing with the advent of AI, though? For decades, voters who wanted to be “informed” before an election faced a familiar problem: too much noise and too little clarity. Yard signs told you nothing and television ads told you what campaigns wanted you to hear. Cable news told you to be angry at while campaign websites — while polished — rarely helped voters compare candidates in a meaningful way.

That’s where AI is changing the game.

Increasingly, everyday voters — not just political junkies or consultants — are using tools like ChatGPT as a kind of personal research assistant. Not to be told how to vote, but to understand what’s actually going on before they make up their minds.

That shift has a quiet but profound implication for democracy and for campaigns.

Most voters don’t ask ChatGPT, “Who should I vote for?” Instead, they’re asking smarter, more grounded questions:

• What does this office actually do?
• What issues matter most at the local level?
• What’s the difference between these candidates’ positions, in plain English?
• What’s fact, what’s spin, and what’s missing?

For the first time, a voter can upload a mailer, paste a debate quote, or reference a claim and ask if it is accurate, what the proper context should be, and what they should know that isn’t be said or shared. That, in itself, matters significantly because it shifts power away from whomever shouts loudest and toward whoever explains best.

Just as importantly, AI doesn’t get tired, care about party labels, or reward outrage. It rewards clarity, consistency, and evidence — exactly the traits voters say they want more of.

This doesn’t mean voters are suddenly policy experts. It means that they’re becoming better consumers of political information and, hopefully, better constituents. Thanks to AI, voters can compare candidates side by side without sitting through hours of content, learn what is realistic versus what is rhetorical, and easily identify when a candidate is avoiding specifics.

In short, voters are outsourcing the hard part — organizing information — while keeping the decision for themselves.

That’s healthy and it changes how campaigns should think about persuasion.

Campaigns should assume something new: anything they say may be interrogated, summarized, compared, and contextualized by AI . . . instantly. That means campaigns can no longer rely on vague language, selective statistics, issue overload, and talking past obvious weaknesses.

The reason? Because AI doesn’t play along. It notices contradictions; it flags omissions; it summarizes what a candidate actually stands for, not what a mail piece implies.

So, what should campaigns do about this?

1. Be Explicit About Priorities
1. Voters utilizing AI tools are not impressed by laundry lists. They want to know what the candidates’ top three priorities are, why, and what happens if those priorities aren’t addressed in the way you lay out. Campaigns that clearly rank priorities will look more serious than those that try to be everything to everyone.
2. Explain Tradeoffs Honestly
1. Every policy choice has costs. Voters know that instinctively — and AI reinforces it. Campaigns that acknowledge tradeoffs (“This helps here, but it may cost us there…”) build credibility. Campaigns that pretend that every idea is painless don’t . . . it’s that simple.
3. Make Positions Comparable
1. When voters ask ChatGPT to compare candidates, it pulls from what is available. Campaigns should ensure their positions are clearly written, publicly accessible, and consistent across platforms. If a campaign’s stance can’t be summarized accurately, that is a warning sign — not a branding victory.
4. Prepare for “Second-Order” Questions
1. AI users don’t stop at surface claims. They follow up initial questions like: How would this be funded? Who benefits from this? Who decides on this? What happens next year and the year after that? Campaigns need to be prepared to answer those questions before voters ask them.
5. Treat Clarity as a Competitive Advantage
1. In an AI-mediated environment, clarity beats cleverness. The candidates who will benefit most aren’t necessarily the loudest or most ideological — they’re the ones who explain themselves well, respect voters’ intelligence, and don’t dodge obvious follow-up questions. That kind of candidate stands out when information is distilled instead of dramatized.

Used well, tools like ChatGPT won’t replace civic judgment . . . they’'ll sharpen it. They will help voters cut through clutter and focus on what matters. They will reward seriousness over spectacle. Ultimately, that is good for voters and it is good for campaigns too.

The campaigns that adapt — by being clearer, more honest, and more prepared — won’t just survive this shift. They’ll earn something rarer than click or impressions. They’ll earn trust.

And in a crowded, polarized political environment, trust may be the most valuable currency left.