AI in the 2026 Midterm Elections (www.schneier.com)

With the 2026 midterms approaching, AI is poised to be a central battleground—not merely as a source of deepfakes but as an operational campaign technology that can automate personalized messaging, persuasion, voter targeting, creative assets, and strategy optimization. The piece argues Republicans currently look like first movers: the Trump White House has embraced AI-generated memes, used executive actions and federal procurement to shape how systems are built and governed, and allies such as Elon Musk have pushed ideologically-aligned models (e.g., Grok). If one party deploys AI at scale for micro-targeting and campaign automation, it could create a measurable effectiveness gap in turnout and persuasion. For Democrats the response has been more cautious and reactive, focusing on consumer protection, regulation and critique of administrative AI adoption—even as polls show similar levels of concern across parties but higher familiarity and comfort among younger voters. The article highlights alternate, underused paths: using AI for participatory policymaking and sensemaking (tools like Decidim, Pol.Is, Go Vocal) to engage constituencies rather than only broadcasting. The takeaway for the AI/ML community: political actors will shape both the technical trajectories and public narratives of AI, so researchers, product teams and policymakers should expect contested incentives, rapid tactical deployment in campaigns, and a growing need to design systems resilient to partisan capture and misuse.