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 ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, according to new data from the Wesleyan Media Project. That’s a massive jump from the 2024 election cycle. “AI is making its way into the 2026 midterms in a big way this year. For comparison, we identified less than $50,000 in spending on AI-gener