A fake drug commercial, a show-tune parody and politicians dancing to rapper Kendrick Lamar are all part of this year's artificial intelligence-powered midterm pitch to voters.
A fake drug commercial, a show-tune parody and politicians dancing to rapper Kendrick Lamar are all part of this cycle’s artificial intelligence-powered midterm pitch to voters.
Campaigns and outside groups had spent nearly $80 million on at least 164 political ads made or enhanced with AI as of Sept. 4, the Wesleyan Media Project found. As the Nov. 3 Election Day approaches, AI ads have been used in key senate and governor races, and some have faced ridicule from critics online who call them “AI slop.”
Citizens for Sanity, a group advised by former Trump deputy White House counsel Gene Hamilton, put six figures behind an AI ad that turns Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico into Julie Andrews’ beloved character, Maria, from “The Sound of Music,” the Daily Caller first reported on June 9.
The AI-generated Talarico, depicted in a video posted by the Daily Caller on X, belts out new lyrics to the musical’s number “My Favorite Things” about gender transitions for minors, which is a callback to his comment that he loves “the trans children,” in an Aug. 2, 2023, interview on A Superbloom Podcast.
Months after winning the Democratic Senate nomination over Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Talarico stated on a June episode of another podcast that he opposed child sex changes.
“Boys in white dresses with blue satin sashes. Girls dosed with hormones til they grow mustaches. Changing the gender of all your offspring. These are a few of my favorite things,” the AI-generated Talarico sings.
“Citizens for sanity” as they make up really weird fake AI fetish videos of a man in dresses,” said one X user in response to the ad.
“Keep burning money,” Rogue DNC said on X in response to the video.
Republican New York gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakemanposted an AI-generated attack ad to X on Sept. 1 that showed incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a mock drug commercial for “delusion pills.”
“Introducing Kathy, the political delusion pill for New Yorkers who would rather not think about what four more years could actually cost them,” the ad states, showing Hochul working in an outdoor garden with Mamdani.
State Democrats filed a Board of Elections complaint on Aug. 10, arguing Blakeman’s AI ads were “materially deceptive media,” while Blakeman, the Nassau County Executive, insisted to News10 that voters “like satire.”
The Front Line Action, a Texas super PAC, tied to Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, poured upward of $90,000 into an AI-generated ad targeting Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, according to FEC filings.
Titled “Family Values,” the ad depicts an AI interpretation of El-Sayed playing a board game with his half-sister and streamer Hasan Piker as they pass around cards reading “Death to America” and “Celebrate 9/11.” In the ad, a narrator warns that “El-Sayed isn’t playing games, and his family values are wrong for Michigan.”
The ad was posted to YouTube on Sept. 11 and features women in burqas.
“ are so desperate that they are resorting to cheap AI generated ads filled with falsehoods and bad faith attacks,” Cole Wozniak, El-Sayed’s campaign spokesman said in a statement to CNN.
Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s campaign account on X shared an AI clip Tuesday of her performing a rendition of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” imitating the rapper’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime performance. Dancing alongside her are fellow Tennessee Republicans Sen. Bill Hagerty, Rep. Tim Burchett, state Sen. Brent Taylor and former Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, dressed as his wrestling persona Kane.
“You know, there is a county commissioner that made the video and put it up … we reposted it, and it’s a funsie. Everybody get out and vote!” Blackburn told WZTV, according to the National Desk.
“What in the absolute fucking AI slop is this?” an X user wrote in response to the video.
“Boomer thinks AI makes her look cool,” Adam Kinzinger, former Republican Illinois Rep wrote on X about the ad.
The ads may grab attention, but it’s unclear they change voters’ minds.
“Whether this is a complete game changer, I’m skeptical that these ads are any more persuasive than the old-fashioned political ad,” Travis Ridout, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, told USA Today.
Republican candidates and allied groups were behind 83 percent of AI ad spending tracked by the project. However, with no federal requirement to disclose AI use, actual spending on AI ads may be even higher.
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