How AI is Quietly Rewiring Campaign Strategy w/ Michael Cohen

from Episode 5 of The Art of Campaigns

In this episode of The Art of Campaigns, I sit down with Michael Cohen, a longtime campaign strategist, pollster, and author of Modern Political Campaigns. Together we unpack how AI is reshaping the campaign landscape from top to bottom.

You can watch here, or read below to get the strategy guide based on that conversation.

AI is reshaping how strategy happens at every level. But it’s not in the flashy, voter-facing ways you might expect. It’s happening behind the scenes in how we draft, plan, research, and operate when time and talent are stretched thin.

This blog unpacks four core insights from our conversation and what they mean for campaigners who want to work smarter, not louder.

Strategy 1: AI Is Leveling the Playing Field for Down-Ballot Campaigns

When generative AI burst onto the scene, major campaigns were cautious. They already had professional writers, consultants, and vendors. Why trust the bot?

But further down the ballot, where time, staff, and money are scarce, AI is making a real difference. As Cohen put it:

"There was this incredible experimentation going on... these new campaigners are being leveled up very quickly."

It’s all about giving smaller teams a running start,  rough drafts for proposals, smarter messaging scaffolds, and better internal conversations. For campaigners without access to big teams, AI becomes the invisible staffer they couldn’t afford.

 

Strategy 2: Voter-Facing AI Still Has Limits, And That’s Okay

Campaign pros at the top level are still wary of using AI for public-facing content. And with good reason, from uncanny visuals to clumsy phrasing, it’s easy to spot when a message wasn’t crafted by a human who gets the nuance of persuasion.

But AI works best when it's being used as a thinking partner, not a mouthpiece.

In our conversation, I shared my own use of the “panel of experts” thought exercise, asking AI to stress-test ideas from different philosophical and strategic viewpoints.

As Cohen noted:

"We should look at these things as tools, not as replacements... to amplify our knowledge and give us perspective we might be missing."

 

Strategy 3: Polling, Sentiment, and the Art of the Gut Check

One of the most important lessons Cohen shares in the episode comes from a campaign early in his career. A controversial ad was running, people were angry, calling the campaign, complaining. But the polling showed movement. Positive movement.

So they stuck with it. And they won.

“The point of polling isn’t to tell you if you’re going to win — it’s to tell you what’s working.”

We talked about the rise of sentiment analysis and how AI tools now allow campaigns to scan vast social media landscapes. But here’s the rub: AI still doesn’t get sarcasm. It misreads context. And relying too heavily on it can lead to bad conclusions. The future isn’t AI vs. polling.

It’s triangulation: using sentiment, data, field reports, and gut instinct together.

 

Strategy 4: The Contact Stack: Rethinking Campaign Outreach

One of the themes I’ve been pushing with candidates lately is this: stop treating donor, volunteer, and voter outreach as separate silos.

Instead, build a contact stack: a unified journey where every interaction feeds the next one.

Text, door knock, email, and mailers are all part of one ecosystem. If someone opens your email and talks to your field team at the door, that should shape the next contact. Campaigns talk about being data-driven, but this is about being relationship-driven.

“Why aren't we planning to follow up on the things people care about? We have the data, what we don’t have is the personal will.”

That has to change. AI can help coordinate, track, and tag these interactions, but only if campaigns are structured to value the relationships more than the broadcast.

 

Bonus: What Smart Campaigns Can Do Today

Use AI to brainstorm and draft faster: Internal docs, research summaries, even content scaffolds.

Be cautious with voter-facing AI: Keep a human in the loop for anything public.

Stop chasing data,and  start using it smarter: Use polling and sentiment to track change, not guess outcomes.

Move toward integrated outreach: Build campaigns around full-spectrum relationships, not isolated contact lists.