Campaign websites give voters some of the first impressions of a campaign. But creating one can be time-consuming and expensive — creating a barrier for smaller, down-ballot operations. Two alums of Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign think they can solve that. Patricia Nelson and Giovanna Salucci — who were the campaign’s creative and social media director and director of email, respectively — are launching Hey Victor, a service that uses AI to help down-ballot Democratic campaigns create a website, the details of which were first shared with Score. “I’d worked with venture capitalists and VCs and big tech companies for years, and so when I got into the political space, I was really surprised on how antiquated some of these tools really were,” Nelson said. Building a site can cost campaigns thousands of dollars, says Nelson, but they plan on charging far less for their AI-powered sites. The beta version is available starting Monday, with a full launch slated for the “near future.” Beyond the cost, Nelson said she wanted to ensure that smaller campaigns would be able to maintain and update the site themselves, without having to call a developer. To build a site using the program, the user fills out a series of forms that prompts them to upload their picture, fill in their campaign slogan and biography, and choose which pages they want to include on the site. The platform then automatically uploads the content and creates different versions of a site to choose from within minutes. There are, of course, plenty of website creators out there. But Nelson said this product was made specifically with political campaigns in mind — including how the sites can be optimized for fundraising and can be integrated with programs like NGP VAN or ActBlue, both of which are critical pieces of infrastructure for running the day-to-day of most Democratic campaigns. Around 50 sites have been created using the program so far, including for Democrats running for the Georgia state House, New York state Assembly and New York City Council. Campaigns have been bracing for an explosion of AI in 2024. Much of that conversation has revolved around using AI to create fake images — which has led some operatives to express concerns about a potential rise of mis- and disinformation. Hey Victor does not use AI to create images or text, the creators say, only to help build the site. Many have cautioned that although AI can be a helpful tool to ease workflows, it’s not a complete replacement for campaign staffers. But Nelson argued that these smaller campaigns wouldn’t have the staff in the first place. “This role doesn't exist, and they can't afford to pay somebody to do it on the local level,” Nelson said. “They don't want to worry about building a website. They want to worry about raising money.” Happy Monday. Reach me at mfernandez@politico.com and @madfernandez616. Days until the Mississippi primary: 15 Days until the RI-01 and UT-02 special election primaries: 43 Days until the Louisiana primary: 82 Days until the 2023 election: 106 Days until the Republican National Convention: 357 Days until the Democratic National Convention: 392 Days until the 2024 election: 470
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