{"id":49297,"topic":"ai","source":"WSMV","title":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections - WSMV","url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","url_hash":"ccd4fe48a867e95857ac3b0e314d78540c33e90b","author":"","summary":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections WSMV","content":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer.\nWhy It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.\nWhat Happens Next\n- Election Day is next Thursday.\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - An AI-generated political attack mailer is circulating across Southern Davidson County ahead of the midterm election, depicting Democratic candidate Angie Lawless alongside President Trump and Cade Cothren.\nLawless, who is running for Tennessee House District 59, said a friend texted her photos of the mailer. The ad reaches voters in parts of Bellevue, Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Crieve Hall.\n“My heart dropped into my stomach. I thought it was disgusting,” Lawless said. “Here’s a picture of me embracing Donald Trump, a man who I’ve never met, don’t know, and am completely revolted by most of his policies.”\nThe ad attempts to connect Lawless and Trump through a character reference letter she wrote when Cothren was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison last year for a kickback scheme while serving as Chief of Staff for former Tennessee House Speaker Glenn Casada.\nLawless said she wrote the letter because Cothren had rented from her. Trump later pardoned Cothren.\nWho paid for the mailer?\nThe mailer was paid for by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee based in Washington, D.C., that has endorsed Lawless’s main opponent, Mark Proctor, who is openly gay.\nThe organization describes itself as “the leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ officials at all levels of government across the country.” The Victory Fund had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of this report.\nIn an emailed statement, Proctor said his campaign had no involvement in the creation, production, approval or distribution of the mailer. He said his campaign has used only authentic, non-AI-generated communications with voters.\n“If anyone suggests we were involved in this independent expenditure, that is totally false,” Proctor said.\nProctor said while he has received endorsements from numerous organizations, his campaign has no role in the independent communications those organizations choose to make.\nHe said his campaign has remained focused on making everyday life more affordable, supporting strong public schools, and keeping communities safe.\nVoter concern\nLawless said voters simply do not have time to scrutinize what they receive in the mail. She’s concerned many will read the ad, make up their mind in the race and then throw it out.\nShe said some constituents have called her after seeing the mailer asking for more information. Lawless sent out her own letter to voters trying to clarify what was said in the attack ad.\n“I had someone say, ‘I immediately knew this was AI. AI has no place in our politics. This is disgusting. I had up someone else’s sign. I’m now putting yours up because we won’t stand for this,’” Lawless said of the response after her letter.\nLawless said the spread of AI in political advertising is shifting an unfair burden onto voters.\nThe limits of state’s new AI law\nA new Tennessee state law that took effect July 1 is designed to limit AI-generated political ads, but it applies only to deepfakes involving audio and video, not still images like a printed mailer.\nUnder the law, audio deepfakes that impersonate a candidate must include a disclosure at the beginning and end of the communication stating. Video deepfakes must display the same warning in large letters for the full duration of the video.\nCandidates who are the subject of a qualifying deepfake are entitled to damages and equitable relief under state law. However, the law does not apply to federal elections, where many candidates are utilizing AI-created commercials.\nMTSU professor and WSMV political analyst Kent Syler said AI is outpacing the political world’s ability to respond.\n“Knowing what’s true and what’s false has really never been tougher,” Syler said. “It’s hard for us as consumers of that information to figure out what’s real, what’s true, what’s false. AI only makes it tougher.”\nHe said regulating political advertising remains a significant challenge under existing law.\n“Regulating American politics and advertising in American politics is very, very difficult because of our First Amendment,” Syler said. “The First Amendment gives broad exceptions to speech, but also even more so, political free speech.”\nSyler said his advice to voters is now very simple: “Until you prove it differently, just figure it’s all false and then try to prove it true.”\nCopyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.","image_url":"https://gray-wsmv-prod.gtv-cdn.com/resizer/v2/ZMOMQTVECVE37FPRH4XT6KCCQ4.png?auth=bbac9fb7becf981b9c362ac7a65aa6565f9b399c8d83580688d65f0440e988de&width=1200&height=600&smart=true","lang":"en","published_at":"2026-07-30T00:06:00+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-07-30T00:15:05+00:00","status":"read","starred":0,"extract_state":"ok","summary_auto":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer. Why It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.","cluster_id":1677382,"extract_retries":0,"extract_error":null,"contract_version":"news_item.v1","format_contract_version":"news_item_formats.v1","dedup_url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170,"usable_text_length":4609,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170}},"news_item":{"id":49297,"canonical_url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","source_url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","title":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections - WSMV","source_name":"WSMV","author":null,"published_at":"2026-07-30T00:06:00+00:00","locale":"en","topic":"ai","tags":[],"rss_summary":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections WSMV","full_text":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer.\nWhy It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.\nWhat Happens Next\n- Election Day is next Thursday.\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - An AI-generated political attack mailer is circulating across Southern Davidson County ahead of the midterm election, depicting Democratic candidate Angie Lawless alongside President Trump and Cade Cothren.\nLawless, who is running for Tennessee House District 59, said a friend texted her photos of the mailer. The ad reaches voters in parts of Bellevue, Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Crieve Hall.\n“My heart dropped into my stomach. I thought it was disgusting,” Lawless said. “Here’s a picture of me embracing Donald Trump, a man who I’ve never met, don’t know, and am completely revolted by most of his policies.”\nThe ad attempts to connect Lawless and Trump through a character reference letter she wrote when Cothren was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison last year for a kickback scheme while serving as Chief of Staff for former Tennessee House Speaker Glenn Casada.\nLawless said she wrote the letter because Cothren had rented from her. Trump later pardoned Cothren.\nWho paid for the mailer?\nThe mailer was paid for by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee based in Washington, D.C., that has endorsed Lawless’s main opponent, Mark Proctor, who is openly gay.\nThe organization describes itself as “the leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ officials at all levels of government across the country.” The Victory Fund had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of this report.\nIn an emailed statement, Proctor said his campaign had no involvement in the creation, production, approval or distribution of the mailer. He said his campaign has used only authentic, non-AI-generated communications with voters.\n“If anyone suggests we were involved in this independent expenditure, that is totally false,” Proctor said.\nProctor said while he has received endorsements from numerous organizations, his campaign has no role in the independent communications those organizations choose to make.\nHe said his campaign has remained focused on making everyday life more affordable, supporting strong public schools, and keeping communities safe.\nVoter concern\nLawless said voters simply do not have time to scrutinize what they receive in the mail. She’s concerned many will read the ad, make up their mind in the race and then throw it out.\nShe said some constituents have called her after seeing the mailer asking for more information. Lawless sent out her own letter to voters trying to clarify what was said in the attack ad.\n“I had someone say, ‘I immediately knew this was AI. AI has no place in our politics. This is disgusting. I had up someone else’s sign. I’m now putting yours up because we won’t stand for this,’” Lawless said of the response after her letter.\nLawless said the spread of AI in political advertising is shifting an unfair burden onto voters.\nThe limits of state’s new AI law\nA new Tennessee state law that took effect July 1 is designed to limit AI-generated political ads, but it applies only to deepfakes involving audio and video, not still images like a printed mailer.\nUnder the law, audio deepfakes that impersonate a candidate must include a disclosure at the beginning and end of the communication stating. Video deepfakes must display the same warning in large letters for the full duration of the video.\nCandidates who are the subject of a qualifying deepfake are entitled to damages and equitable relief under state law. However, the law does not apply to federal elections, where many candidates are utilizing AI-created commercials.\nMTSU professor and WSMV political analyst Kent Syler said AI is outpacing the political world’s ability to respond.\n“Knowing what’s true and what’s false has really never been tougher,” Syler said. “It’s hard for us as consumers of that information to figure out what’s real, what’s true, what’s false. AI only makes it tougher.”\nHe said regulating political advertising remains a significant challenge under existing law.\n“Regulating American politics and advertising in American politics is very, very difficult because of our First Amendment,” Syler said. “The First Amendment gives broad exceptions to speech, but also even more so, political free speech.”\nSyler said his advice to voters is now very simple: “Until you prove it differently, just figure it’s all false and then try to prove it true.”\nCopyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.","excerpt":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer. Why It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.","extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170,"usable_text_length":4609,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170}}},"display_formats":["compact","card","full","digest_section","json"]},"daily_stack_record":{"title":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections - WSMV","url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","summary":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer. Why It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.","source":"WSMV","date":"2026-07-30T00:06:00+00:00","content":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer.\nWhy It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.\nWhat Happens Next\n- Election Day is next Thursday.\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - An AI-generated political attack mailer is circulating across Southern Davidson County ahead of the midterm election, depicting Democratic candidate Angie Lawless alongside President Trump and Cade Cothren.\nLawless, who is running for Tennessee House District 59, said a friend texted her photos of the mailer. The ad reaches voters in parts of Bellevue, Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Crieve Hall.\n“My heart dropped into my stomach. I thought it was disgusting,” Lawless said. “Here’s a picture of me embracing Donald Trump, a man who I’ve never met, don’t know, and am completely revolted by most of his policies.”\nThe ad attempts to connect Lawless and Trump through a character reference letter she wrote when Cothren was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison last year for a kickback scheme while serving as Chief of Staff for former Tennessee House Speaker Glenn Casada.\nLawless said she wrote the letter because Cothren had rented from her. Trump later pardoned Cothren.\nWho paid for the mailer?\nThe mailer was paid for by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee based in Washington, D.C., that has endorsed Lawless’s main opponent, Mark Proctor, who is openly gay.\nThe organization describes itself as “the leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ officials at all levels of government across the country.” The Victory Fund had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of this report.\nIn an emailed statement, Proctor said his campaign had no involvement in the creation, production, approval or distribution of the mailer. He said his campaign has used only authentic, non-AI-generated communications with voters.\n“If anyone suggests we were involved in this independent expenditure, that is totally false,” Proctor said.\nProctor said while he has received endorsements from numerous organizations, his campaign has no role in the independent communications those organizations choose to make.\nHe said his campaign has remained focused on making everyday life more affordable, supporting strong public schools, and keeping communities safe.\nVoter concern\nLawless said voters simply do not have time to scrutinize what they receive in the mail. She’s concerned many will read the ad, make up their mind in the race and then throw it out.\nShe said some constituents have called her after seeing the mailer asking for more information. Lawless sent out her own letter to voters trying to clarify what was said in the attack ad.\n“I had someone say, ‘I immediately knew this was AI. AI has no place in our politics. This is disgusting. I had up someone else’s sign. I’m now putting yours up because we won’t stand for this,’” Lawless said of the response after her letter.\nLawless said the spread of AI in political advertising is shifting an unfair burden onto voters.\nThe limits of state’s new AI law\nA new Tennessee state law that took effect July 1 is designed to limit AI-generated political ads, but it applies only to deepfakes involving audio and video, not still images like a printed mailer.\nUnder the law, audio deepfakes that impersonate a candidate must include a disclosure at the beginning and end of the communication stating. Video deepfakes must display the same warning in large letters for the full duration of the video.\nCandidates who are the subject of a qualifying deepfake are entitled to damages and equitable relief under state law. However, the law does not apply to federal elections, where many candidates are utilizing AI-created commercials.\nMTSU professor and WSMV political analyst Kent Syler said AI is outpacing the political world’s ability to respond.\n“Knowing what’s true and what’s false has really never been tougher,” Syler said. “It’s hard for us as consumers of that information to figure out what’s real, what’s true, what’s false. AI only makes it tougher.”\nHe said regulating political advertising remains a significant challenge under existing law.\n“Regulating American politics and advertising in American politics is very, very difficult because of our First Amendment,” Syler said. “The First Amendment gives broad exceptions to speech, but also even more so, political free speech.”\nSyler said his advice to voters is now very simple: “Until you prove it differently, just figure it’s all false and then try to prove it true.”\nCopyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.","confidence":0.9,"diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","quality_bucket":"high","failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170,"usable_text_length":4609,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170}},"tags":[]},"fallback_formats":["markdown","json","html"],"actions":{"read":"/item/49297","export_markdown":"/api/items/49297/export?format=markdown","export_json":"/api/items/49297/export?format=json","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/"},"formats":{"full":{"id":49297,"title":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections - WSMV","url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","source":"WSMV","author":null,"published_at":"2026-07-30T00:06:00+00:00","locale":"en","topic":"ai","tags":[],"excerpt":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer. Why It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.","full_text":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer.\nWhy It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.\nWhat Happens Next\n- Election Day is next Thursday.\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - An AI-generated political attack mailer is circulating across Southern Davidson County ahead of the midterm election, depicting Democratic candidate Angie Lawless alongside President Trump and Cade Cothren.\nLawless, who is running for Tennessee House District 59, said a friend texted her photos of the mailer. The ad reaches voters in parts of Bellevue, Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Crieve Hall.\n“My heart dropped into my stomach. I thought it was disgusting,” Lawless said. “Here’s a picture of me embracing Donald Trump, a man who I’ve never met, don’t know, and am completely revolted by most of his policies.”\nThe ad attempts to connect Lawless and Trump through a character reference letter she wrote when Cothren was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison last year for a kickback scheme while serving as Chief of Staff for former Tennessee House Speaker Glenn Casada.\nLawless said she wrote the letter because Cothren had rented from her. Trump later pardoned Cothren.\nWho paid for the mailer?\nThe mailer was paid for by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee based in Washington, D.C., that has endorsed Lawless’s main opponent, Mark Proctor, who is openly gay.\nThe organization describes itself as “the leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ officials at all levels of government across the country.” The Victory Fund had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of this report.\nIn an emailed statement, Proctor said his campaign had no involvement in the creation, production, approval or distribution of the mailer. He said his campaign has used only authentic, non-AI-generated communications with voters.\n“If anyone suggests we were involved in this independent expenditure, that is totally false,” Proctor said.\nProctor said while he has received endorsements from numerous organizations, his campaign has no role in the independent communications those organizations choose to make.\nHe said his campaign has remained focused on making everyday life more affordable, supporting strong public schools, and keeping communities safe.\nVoter concern\nLawless said voters simply do not have time to scrutinize what they receive in the mail. She’s concerned many will read the ad, make up their mind in the race and then throw it out.\nShe said some constituents have called her after seeing the mailer asking for more information. Lawless sent out her own letter to voters trying to clarify what was said in the attack ad.\n“I had someone say, ‘I immediately knew this was AI. AI has no place in our politics. This is disgusting. I had up someone else’s sign. I’m now putting yours up because we won’t stand for this,’” Lawless said of the response after her letter.\nLawless said the spread of AI in political advertising is shifting an unfair burden onto voters.\nThe limits of state’s new AI law\nA new Tennessee state law that took effect July 1 is designed to limit AI-generated political ads, but it applies only to deepfakes involving audio and video, not still images like a printed mailer.\nUnder the law, audio deepfakes that impersonate a candidate must include a disclosure at the beginning and end of the communication stating. Video deepfakes must display the same warning in large letters for the full duration of the video.\nCandidates who are the subject of a qualifying deepfake are entitled to damages and equitable relief under state law. However, the law does not apply to federal elections, where many candidates are utilizing AI-created commercials.\nMTSU professor and WSMV political analyst Kent Syler said AI is outpacing the political world’s ability to respond.\n“Knowing what’s true and what’s false has really never been tougher,” Syler said. “It’s hard for us as consumers of that information to figure out what’s real, what’s true, what’s false. AI only makes it tougher.”\nHe said regulating political advertising remains a significant challenge under existing law.\n“Regulating American politics and advertising in American politics is very, very difficult because of our First Amendment,” Syler said. “The First Amendment gives broad exceptions to speech, but also even more so, political free speech.”\nSyler said his advice to voters is now very simple: “Until you prove it differently, just figure it’s all false and then try to prove it true.”\nCopyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.","reading_time_min":4,"extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170,"usable_text_length":4609,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170}}},"quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170,"usable_text_length":4609,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170}},"actions":{"read":"/item/49297","export_markdown":"/api/items/49297/export?format=markdown","export_json":"/api/items/49297/export?format=json","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/"}},"digest":{"id":49297,"title":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections - WSMV","url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","source":"WSMV","topic":"ai","published_at":"2026-07-30T00:06:00+00:00","excerpt":"What This Story Is About - A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer. Why It Matters - State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.","quality_bucket":"high","quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","reading_time_min":4,"cluster_id":1677382},"card":{"display_title":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections - WSMV","subtitle":"WSMV · 2026-07-30","summary":"What This Story Is About - A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer. Why It Matters - State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.","badges":["quality:high"],"links":{"read":"/item/49297","original":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/"},"quality_warning":null},"export":{"title":"AI-generated ads target Tennessee midterm elections - WSMV","url":"https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","summary":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer. Why It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.","source":"WSMV","date":"2026-07-30T00:06:00+00:00","content":"What This Story Is About\n- A Nashville House candidate has been targeted by a fake AI mailer.\nWhy It Matters\n- State law doesn’t cover AI still images, including mailers.\nWhat Happens Next\n- Election Day is next Thursday.\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - An AI-generated political attack mailer is circulating across Southern Davidson County ahead of the midterm election, depicting Democratic candidate Angie Lawless alongside President Trump and Cade Cothren.\nLawless, who is running for Tennessee House District 59, said a friend texted her photos of the mailer. The ad reaches voters in parts of Bellevue, Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Crieve Hall.\n“My heart dropped into my stomach. I thought it was disgusting,” Lawless said. “Here’s a picture of me embracing Donald Trump, a man who I’ve never met, don’t know, and am completely revolted by most of his policies.”\nThe ad attempts to connect Lawless and Trump through a character reference letter she wrote when Cothren was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison last year for a kickback scheme while serving as Chief of Staff for former Tennessee House Speaker Glenn Casada.\nLawless said she wrote the letter because Cothren had rented from her. Trump later pardoned Cothren.\nWho paid for the mailer?\nThe mailer was paid for by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political action committee based in Washington, D.C., that has endorsed Lawless’s main opponent, Mark Proctor, who is openly gay.\nThe organization describes itself as “the leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ officials at all levels of government across the country.” The Victory Fund had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of this report.\nIn an emailed statement, Proctor said his campaign had no involvement in the creation, production, approval or distribution of the mailer. He said his campaign has used only authentic, non-AI-generated communications with voters.\n“If anyone suggests we were involved in this independent expenditure, that is totally false,” Proctor said.\nProctor said while he has received endorsements from numerous organizations, his campaign has no role in the independent communications those organizations choose to make.\nHe said his campaign has remained focused on making everyday life more affordable, supporting strong public schools, and keeping communities safe.\nVoter concern\nLawless said voters simply do not have time to scrutinize what they receive in the mail. She’s concerned many will read the ad, make up their mind in the race and then throw it out.\nShe said some constituents have called her after seeing the mailer asking for more information. Lawless sent out her own letter to voters trying to clarify what was said in the attack ad.\n“I had someone say, ‘I immediately knew this was AI. AI has no place in our politics. This is disgusting. I had up someone else’s sign. I’m now putting yours up because we won’t stand for this,’” Lawless said of the response after her letter.\nLawless said the spread of AI in political advertising is shifting an unfair burden onto voters.\nThe limits of state’s new AI law\nA new Tennessee state law that took effect July 1 is designed to limit AI-generated political ads, but it applies only to deepfakes involving audio and video, not still images like a printed mailer.\nUnder the law, audio deepfakes that impersonate a candidate must include a disclosure at the beginning and end of the communication stating. Video deepfakes must display the same warning in large letters for the full duration of the video.\nCandidates who are the subject of a qualifying deepfake are entitled to damages and equitable relief under state law. However, the law does not apply to federal elections, where many candidates are utilizing AI-created commercials.\nMTSU professor and WSMV political analyst Kent Syler said AI is outpacing the political world’s ability to respond.\n“Knowing what’s true and what’s false has really never been tougher,” Syler said. “It’s hard for us as consumers of that information to figure out what’s real, what’s true, what’s false. AI only makes it tougher.”\nHe said regulating political advertising remains a significant challenge under existing law.\n“Regulating American politics and advertising in American politics is very, very difficult because of our First Amendment,” Syler said. “The First Amendment gives broad exceptions to speech, but also even more so, political free speech.”\nSyler said his advice to voters is now very simple: “Until you prove it differently, just figure it’s all false and then try to prove it true.”\nCopyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.","confidence":0.9,"diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.wsmv.com/2026/07/30/ai-generated-ads-target-tennessee-midterm-elections/","quality_bucket":"high","failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 4609 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170,"usable_text_length":4609,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":4609,"summary_length":170}},"tags":[],"format_contract_version":"news_item_formats.v1"}}}