Kathy Hochul AI media incident — Oct 2026

In the lead-up to the November 3 United States midterm elections, political campaigns have increasingly turned to AI-generated deepfake advertisements to influence voter perception. These ads, often categorized as slopaganda, use artificial intelligence to place candidates in fabricated scenarios, ranging from humorous parodies to depictions of political collaboration or character-based mockery. According to the Wesleyan Media Project, candidates and their supporters have spent over $80 million to produce more than 164 AI-based advertisements this season.

What happened

Campaigns have deployed AI to create synthetic imagery of opponents in various staged settings. For instance, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman released ads featuring New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani gardening together and collaborating on policy. Other examples include ads showing Senate candidate Sherrod Brown as a party guest who has overstayed his welcome, James Talarico dressed in a costume from The Sound of Music, and Mike Rogers appearing as a superhero.

While these ads typically carry a brief disclaimer identifying them as AI-generated, critics argue they are designed to shape perceptions of a candidate's character rather than convey factual information. In a separate incident, California state Senator Scott Wiener faced backlash after releasing an AI chatbot that parodied his opponent, Connie Chan, by mocking her record and accent. Wiener eventually withdrew the chatbot following public criticism.

There is currently no federal law regulating the use of AI in political advertising, though 31 states have enacted their own labeling requirements. The New York Democratic Party has filed a complaint regarding the Blakeman ads, alleging they violate disclosure requirements and mislead voters, while proponents of the practice argue these ads fall under the tradition of political satire and parody.