Stop Overpaying Political Consultants: What AI Can Do For Free
Let's talk about money. Specifically, the obscene amounts of money political consultants charge local candidates for work that artificial intelligence can now do in minutes.
I've watched too many qualified candidates for school board, city council, and county positions drain their war chests paying $5,000-$15,000 to consultants for pre-announcement work that AI can handle for pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile, their well-funded opponents are already using AI to work smarter, not harder.
The political consulting industry has a dirty secret: much of what they charge thousands for is mechanical work that doesn't require years of experience or insider knowledge. It requires time, organization, and consistency. Things AI excels at.
After managing communications for multiple local campaigns across North Texas, I'm pulling back the curtain on exactly what you should do yourself with AI versus what's actually worth paying a strategist for. Your campaign budget is limited. Spend it where it matters.
Media Training: $2,500 or $0?
Traditional media training runs $1,500-$3,500 for a half-day session. You'll get valuable face time with an experienced consultant who can coach your body language, tone, and presentation. That part is worth paying for.
But here's what you're also paying for that you shouldn't be: the 50-100 practice questions they'll drill you on. The talking points document. The Q&A prep sheet. The "difficult questions" list specific to your race.
AI can generate all of that in 20 minutes. Feed Claude or ChatGPT your district information, your background, your priority issues, and your potential vulnerabilities. Ask it to create 50 hostile reporter questions. Have it draft bridging statements. Get it to analyze your practice answers for clarity and message discipline.
Walk into that media training session with your AI-generated prep work already done. Cut the consultant time in half. Save $1,500. Use that money for voter contact where it actually matters.
Press Lists: $1,000 Per Hour of Intern Work
Political consultants love charging for press list development because it's pure profit. They'll bill you $1,000-$2,000 for an intern to spend 8-10 hours copying and pasting contact information from websites into a spreadsheet.
AI can do this in literal minutes. Give it the parameters (local newspapers, TV stations, radio, bloggers, podcasters in your district), and watch it compile names, titles, emails, phone numbers, outlet names, and beat areas. It can even analyze which reporters cover which topics and their recent coverage patterns.
For your "chattering-class" and surrogate list, AI can scan social media to identify local influencers, community leaders, and engaged citizens with reach. It can categorize them by follower count, engagement rate, and topic alignment. Work that used to take a week now takes an afternoon.
Yes, you'll need to verify contact information and add personal notes about relationships. But you just saved $1,500 and you own the process.
The $3,000 Earned Media Plan
A comprehensive post-announcement earned media plan from a consultant runs $2,500-$5,000. You'll get a professional document with story angles, media targets, and a timeline. It's often impressive-looking and sometimes useful.
Here's the truth: AI can generate 80% of that plan in under an hour. Feed it your campaign fundamentals (district data, biography, issues, opponent info, filing deadline, election date) and ask for a phased media strategy. You'll get story angles, pitch timing, outlet targeting, backup plans, and crisis response frameworks.
The consultant's value isn't in creating the plan framework, it's in the local market knowledge and relationship insights that AI can't replicate. Pay a consultant $500-$1,000 for a 2-hour strategy session to review and refine your AI-generated plan. You just saved $2,000.
Issue Books and Policy Positions: $5,000 of Research
Policy books and issue matrices are where consultants really rack up the bill. Comprehensive issue research, position development, and opponent analysis can cost $3,000-$7,000 depending on the race.
This is where AI is absolutely transformative. It can research your priority issues, compile relevant local statistics, identify your opponent's past positions, draft initial policy stances based on your values, organize everything into scannable formats, and even create the vulnerability matrix that maps where you're strong or weak on each issue.
You still need human judgment for final positions. You still need local knowledge about which issues matter most to your specific voters. But the research and organization work that used to take weeks? AI does it in days.
Pay a consultant $1,000 for a half-day session to review your AI-compiled research and help you make the strategic decisions about positioning. You just saved $4,000.
The Leesburg Grid: $800 or 30 Minutes
The Leesburg Grid is a competitive analysis tool that maps your strengths and weaknesses against your opponent's. Consultants charge $500-$1,200 to create one.
AI can populate this framework in 30 minutes if you give it the public information about both candidates. It identifies competitive advantages, vulnerability areas, strategic opportunities, and messaging priorities. You review it, add your insider knowledge about local dynamics, and you're done.
$800 saved.
Biography and Message Development: Where Humans Win
Here's where I'll defend the consultants: your biography and "why I'm running" statement need human touch. A good consultant can interview you, pull out your most compelling stories, and help you articulate your motivation in ways that resonate emotionally.
But even here, AI changes the economics. Instead of paying $2,000-$3,000 for a consultant to draft your bio and message from scratch, use AI to create first drafts. Have it ask you the probing questions. Get it to identify themes in your answers. Generate multiple versions for different audiences.
Then pay a consultant $500-$750 for a 90-minute session to polish the AI drafts and add the emotional resonance and strategic positioning that requires human expertise.
You just saved $1,500 while getting the best of both worlds.
Email Marketing Setup: $1,500 You Don't Need to Spend
Consultants charge $1,200-$2,000 to set up your email marketing infrastructure and write your initial automation sequences. It's not because it's difficult. It's because it's time-consuming and technical.
AI can walk you through MailChimp or Constant Contact setup step-by-step. It can draft your welcome sequences, donation ask emails, volunteer recruitment messages, and event promotion templates. It can suggest segmentation strategies and optimal sending schedules.
You'll spend an afternoon instead of writing a check for $1,500.
Launch Materials: $3,000 or $300?
A press packet with releases, talking points, Q&A documents, and announcement speech typically costs $2,500-$4,000 from a consultant. Much of that cost is in maintaining consistency across multiple formats and ensuring everything aligns with your core message.
AI is brilliant at consistency. Give it your core message, biography, and priority issues once. Then have it generate your press release, talking points, Q&A doc, and speech outline. It will naturally maintain consistent language and themes across all materials.
You'll spend a few hours reviewing and refining. Pay a consultant $300 for a final review and polish. You just saved $2,700.
The Real Math on AI vs. Consultants
Here's what traditional pre-announcement consulting costs:
Media training: $2,500
Press list development: $1,500
Earned media plan: $4,000
Issue book and policy research: $5,000
Leesburg Grid: $800
Biography and message development: $2,500
Email marketing setup: $1,500
Launch materials: $3,000
Total traditional cost: $20,800
Here's what it costs using AI with selective consultant input:
Media training (reduced time): $1,200
Press list development (DIY with AI): $0
Earned media plan (AI draft + consultant review): $750
Issue book and policy research (AI research + consultant strategy): $1,200
Leesburg Grid (AI draft + your review): $0
Biography and message (AI drafts + consultant polish): $650
Email marketing setup (DIY with AI): $0
Launch materials (AI draft + consultant review): $300
Total AI-assisted cost: $4,100
You just saved $16,700. That's enough money to fund your entire direct mail program or digital advertising budget for a local race.
What's Still Worth Paying For
Let me be clear about where consultants earn their keep:
Local market intelligence - AI doesn't know that the morning radio host has more influence than the newspaper editor, or that the neighborhood association president is a kingmaker in District 3.
Relationship navigation - AI can't tell you that Reporter X is fair but Reporter Y will bury you, or that you should call the former councilmember before announcing because he's got a long memory.
Strategic decision-making - When you have three good messaging options and need to pick one, experienced human judgment beats AI pattern recognition.
Crisis management - When something goes wrong (and it will), you want a consultant who's handled 50 campaign crises, not an AI giving you theoretical advice.
Debate prep - AI can help you practice, but a real human playing your opponent and reading your tells is invaluable.
Pay consultants for their experience, judgment, relationships, and strategic thinking. Don't pay them for mechanical work that AI does faster and cheaper.
The Empowerment Factor
There's something else that happens when you use AI for campaign work instead of blindly trusting consultants: you actually understand your own campaign.
You know your issues cold because you worked with AI to research them. You know your message inside-out because you refined it over multiple iterations. You know your media strategy because you built it with AI assistance.
When the consultant says "trust me" on a strategy call, you can actually evaluate whether they're right because you did the homework with AI.
Candidates who outsource everything to consultants often become passengers in their own campaigns. Candidates who use AI strategically become owners of their campaigns.
Getting Started Without Getting Overwhelmed
If this checklist still feels overwhelming, start with these three high-value, low-effort AI tasks:
Generate your press list (2 hours of work saved, $1,500 saved)
Research and organize your issue positions (40 hours of work saved, $4,000 saved)
Draft your launch materials (20 hours of work saved, $2,500 saved)
Those three tasks alone save you $8,000 and 60+ hours. That's enough ROI to justify learning how to prompt AI effectively.
The Bottom Line
Political consulting is a valuable industry when consultants are providing actual strategy, relationships, and judgment. It's a ripoff when they're charging premium rates for mechanical work that AI can do.
The campaigns that win in 2025 won't necessarily be the ones with the most money. They'll be the ones that spend their money strategically, using AI to handle the mechanical work and consultants for what consultants actually do best.
Your pre-announcement phase determines everything that follows. Do it smart. Use AI for the heavy lifting. Pay for human expertise where it matters. Keep your powder dry for voter contact.
And if a consultant tells you that AI can't do what I've outlined here, ask yourself: are they protecting your interests or their billable hours?
Ready to build a campaign that works smarter, not harder? Let's talk about AI-powered strategies that keep your budget focused on winning votes. Visit TheRightInfluencer.com to learn more.
