Courtney Pannell ’11, who last year gained fame after her star turn as “Pi Phi Girl,” stars in a new YouTube short that’s being billed as the first political ad of the 2012 campaign.

Pannell stars in the ad as a jilted ex-supporter of President Barack Obama.

“So I met this guy a couple years ago,” she says in the video. “He told me he was different. He bought me a car, he even subsidized my medical insurance. Everything was perfect — until I got my credit card bill. Turns out he was spending all of my money!”

So Pannell says she dumped him and is back with a new man, one who stands for fiscal responsibility — Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana. The ad, written by Pannell, Max Eden ’11 and Michael Knowles ’12 and produced by Caleb Smith ’11, is part of a student-run effort to draft Daniels to run for president in 2012. According to a post on the group’s Facebook page, Pannell’s face will begin flashing across television screens in Iowa and New Hampshire — the critical first two states to hold their presidential primaries — and Daniels’ home state of Indiana, within the week.

So far, the student effort to draft Mitch Daniels has nearly 1,200 fans on Facebook.