How We’re Using AI to Connect With Voters

There's an old saying about insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Whatever else this campaign is, it isn't that definition of insane. We’re doing things differently in the service of a North Star goal: Showing up and actually listening to voters in order to be a better advocate.

What has “doing something different” looked like in our campaign? Here are a few examples:

• I don’t march in parades. I walk from one end of the line to the other, talking to every voter who’s watching from the sidelines.

• I don’t hide in my room like a social media warrior. I show up at any town hall I’m invited to, and I take anyone’s questions. 

• I don’t create random connections. I lean into relational organizing. 

• And here’s one more: I don’t assume it’s impossible to reach more voters

  
  

One way I’ve reached more voters is by using Artificial Intelligence, or AI. 

Before I explain how we're using AI, you should know exactly where I stand on it.

 I have a daughter, and when I think about her future, four questions sit with me: 

• Will she have a job that means something? 

• Will she have real human relationships, not ones mediated by a screen and an algorithm?

•  Will she live in a democracy, or something that used to be one? 

• Will she live on a planet that can still support her? 

  
  

The way we use AI will determine the answer to every one of those questions.

I’m concerned about the sheer power concentrated in a handful of AI companies. I am firmly against communities being overrun with data centers, transmission lines, and surveillance infrastructure they never asked for and don't benefit from. And I notice that the same executives building these systems are also building doomsday shelters, just in case it all goes wrong. That tells you something about how confident they really are.

That's exactly why how we use AI matters. I’ve used AI to explain academic concepts to my daughter that I don't fully understand myself.

I’ve used it to organize my schedule. I’ve used it to find events happening across the district that I might otherwise miss. And recently, our campaign team decided to use an AI texting tool to reach voters we couldn’t connect with any other way and make sure their perspectives were heard. 

Our district includes over a half a million voters. That’s HUGE! And regardless of our strong person-to-person ground game, it’s impossible for me to hold conversations with every voter. It’s impossible for us to knock every door. But we still want to reach as many people as possible. And the tool we’re using helps us do that. 

We chose this tool with the same discipline and thoughtfulness we bring to everything else. We partnered with a small startup — Convos — instead of a big corporation. All the responses are based on messages I or our staff wrote and entered into  the system. And we were transparent about how the data would be used:  It would not be shared. It would not be kept past the election. And only the high-level findings would remain. 

The ecological footprint is light, since it's just text messaging . But we still calculated the amount of water used, and we made a donation to a water advocacy group to account for it. And starting last week, I began personally calling the 300 people who texted with the software. 

This is what it looks like to use AI on purpose, with a plan, instead of either rejecting it outright or reaching for it carelessly.

I'm against AI that isn't transparent, that tricks people into thinking they're talking to something they're not. I'm against the power these companies wield: They can put a data center in your backyard without ever asking you. I'm against a rush to replace human jobs and human connection, driven by people who don't care about the humans on the other end, only the profit they can wring out of them. 

It's the same way I feel about Meta as a company: I don't trust them, and I think they've done real harm. But I still use Facebook to talk to voters and future constituents, because how we use a tool and our thoughts on the company that built it aren't the same moral question. For the record, in this case, we actually like the people at Convos. 🙂

 I'm going to keep using the tool they built to learn about what matters to you. And here’s what we learned in this first round of texts. 

1. AI Data Centers - This is the biggest issue that came up in the responses we received. People are worried about the power that AI companies hold, and they’re angry about the fact that they don’t have a voice. 

   
   

Here’s what I’m doing: I’ve organized a group of candidates to stand up against transmission lines. I’m advocating for federal legislation that requires community referendums before data centers are built. And I recently accepted an invitation to a town hall in the Eastern Panhandle, focused on this issue. 

2. Affordability - People are feeling crushed by how out of reach an affordable life is. Housing, food, healthcare, childcare, and basic needs are all too expensive. I am strongly against the Iran War and the Trump-Moore tariffs that have jacked up prices. And I’ve focused much of my platform on policies that will make life more affordable. Check it out. 

3. Corruption - Many people were concerned that big corporations aren’t being held accountable and public officials are engaged in legal, yet unethical, corruption. Unlike my opponent, I take no corporate PAC money. I’m against Citizens United. And I believe elected officials should divest from investments they have a say in. We should also ban them from lobbying once they leave Congress. 

4. Clean Water - This is a very local and important issue in West Virginia. Unlike my opponent, who championed cuts to the polluter enforcement mechanisms at the EPA, I have advocated for holding polluters accountable. I’ve advocated for using the billions of dollars in taxpayer money currently spent on the Iran War to invest in clean and safe drinking water. And I’ve drawn attention to the fact that West Virginia’s Abandoned Mine Land funds were taken away and sent to West Coast states. Just for fun, I jumped into Cheat Lake to highlight where I stand. 

   
   

West Virginians, you deserve a representative who shows up and is genuinely interested in your life. You also deserve a representative who stands up to the powerful interests looking to profit off harming you.  Between now and Election Day – and every day I represent you after it – I will use every tool at my disposal and every ounce of human effort I can muster to do both.