SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE

Quick question for you. If a campaign ad can show you a scene that never happened, who’s supposed to tell you? This is the white pill. Unlike the “political delusion pill” in a Republican ad this fall, it comes with a label.

The pill that wasn’t real

New York’s mayor and governor appeared to stroll through a park and garden together, promoting a “political delusion pill” to help voters get over their fears about affordability and crime. “Side effects may include: chronic wallet shrinkage, higher tax,” a narrator said. The video used the voices and likenesses of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul. It was an AI-generated fabrication from the campaign of Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor, with no disclaimer, The New York Times reported Friday, as excerpted by Election Law Blog.

It’s one of 220 ads the Wesleyan Media Project has tracked that were made at least partly with AI tools. Spending on them: more than $137 million, across 34 states. In the whole 2024 cycle, Wesleyan found less than $50,000. Only 27% of this year’s AI ads carry a disclaimer, and only 30 states require one, per Campaigns & Elections. Wesleyan calls its count “almost certainly an undercount.”

SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE: not knowing what you just watched.

Kathy Hochul in her official congressional portrait. The Times reports a Republican campaign used her voice and likeness in an AI-generated ad with no disclaimer. Credit: U.S. Congress official photo, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The red costume: just like the White House

Republican sponsors made 81% of the AI ads Wesleyan identified and account for 88% of the spending. Democrats sponsored 12%.

The examples write themselves. The National Republican Senatorial Committee posted an 85-second deepfake of Texas Democrat James Talarico talking to the camera, with its “AI GENERATED” label in small, faint text in a corner, CNN reported. Ken Paxton’s campaign followed with an AI Talarico reading a “King James Talarico” Bible, per CBS News. In Georgia, Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins ran a deepfake of Sen. Jon Ossoff saying, “I’ve only seen a farm on Instagram.” Ossoff never said it. Collins’ defense, per Axios: “Our team is doing it just like the White House.” In Oklahoma, a group called Make Oklahoma Great Again spent more than $200,000 airing an ad that showed the Democratic candidate for governor cheek to cheek with Hillary Clinton, with no disclosure that it was AI-made, per the Times.

Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia. A Republican rival’s deepfake ad put words in his mouth; the rival said his team was “doing it just like the White House.” Credit: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The party that made “fake news” a slogan is now the biggest buyer of AI-made campaign ads, by Wesleyan’s count.

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The blue costume: rules for thee, deepfakes for me

Democrats are the ones calling for guardrails. Sen. Andy Kim answered the Talarico fake by posting that “these deepfakes are dangerous and wrong,” per CNN. In September 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California laws banning materially deceptive election content and requiring political ads to disclose AI, the Los Angeles Times notes.

Then his press office went into the deepfake business. On Sept. 30, 2025, it posted an AI-generated JD Vance hosting “A History of Couches,” captioned “POOR JD! HIS SWEET BELOVED COUCH NOW COSTS MORE WITH THE TARIFFS!” per HuffPost. It posted a second fake Vance the next day, per Mediaite. CNN adds that Newsom has posted a fictional video of Trump and top officials crying in handcuffs. In San Francisco, Democrat Scott Wiener’s House campaign spent $5,000 on an AI chatbot parodying his rival Connie Chan, plus $20,000 on billboards. Nancy Pelosi called it a “gross misuse of technology.” Wiener said it “clearly missed the mark” and pulled it, per the LA Times. And in 2024, a consultant working for Democrat Dean Phillips’ presidential campaign hired someone to fake Joe Biden’s voice in a robocall telling New Hampshire voters not to vote in the primary, CNN recalls.

Calling it satire when you do it and a deepfake when they do it is the oldest edit in politics.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed election deepfake and AI disclosure laws in 2024. A year later, his press office posted AI-generated videos of Vice President JD Vance. Credit: Office of the Governor of California, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Both costumes

Here’s the adult version.

Republicans are doing most of this, and the numbers say so plainly: 81% of the ads, 88% of the money. Democrats are doing less of it, and Talarico told CBS that “every ad that we put out is made by human beings.” But the party asking for rules has a governor whose office posts AI fakes for laughs and a House candidate who built a chatbot of his opponent. Neither side has made the label mandatory nationwide.

Own the boring standard: any ad that puts a real person’s face or voice in a scene that never happened carries a clear label on screen the whole time, and each party applies it to its own ads first.

We fact-checked both parties’ Senate ads in THE ADS ALREADY KNOW, followed taxpayer-funded spots in STILL ON YOUR DIME, and tracked AI money in The pause button has a donor. See who funds the Texas race on our Texas Money Map.

Ask your reps one question: will they require that label on their own party’s ads before they demand it from the other side?

Receipts

• Wesleyan Media Project, Oct. 15, 2026. 220 AI ads; more than $137 million; 34 states; 27% disclaimed; under $50,000 in 2024; 81% Republican, 12% Democratic; 88% of spending Republican.
• Election Law Blog excerpt of The New York Times, Oct. 16, 2026. Blakeman’s “political delusion pill” ad; Make Oklahoma Great Again ad.
• Campaigns & Elections, Oct. 16, 2026. Only 30 states require AI disclaimers.
• CNN (Daniel Dale), March 13, 2026. NRSC Talarico deepfake; Andy Kim; Newsom handcuffs video; 2024 Biden robocall.
• CBS News. Paxton’s AI ad; Talarico’s human-made pledge.
• Axios, April 14, 2026. Collins’ Ossoff deepfake and “just like the White House” quote.
• Los Angeles Times, Aug. 11, 2026. Wiener chatbot; Pelosi rebuke; Newsom’s 2024 AI laws.
• HuffPost, Sept. 30, 2025 and Mediaite, Oct. 1, 2025. Newsom press office AI Vance videos.
• Earlier Hypocrisy Democracy: THE ADS ALREADY KNOW; STILL ON YOUR DIME; The pause button has a donor. Reader tools: Texas Money Map; PACTracker.

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Originally published on Substack.