AI deepfake video tarnishes Oklahoma governor race; and Kansas has no defense | Opinion
When it comes to AI deception in elections, a line has been crossed in Oklahoma, and Kansas is defenseless because our state Legislature declined to deal with the threat when it had the chance.
A dark-money outfit supporting Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond in the race for governor used AI-generated deepfake video in a campaign to smear fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei in the lead-up to Tuesday’s primary.
The fake video purports to show Mazzei (an archconservative recently endorsed by President Donald Trump) hobnobbing in the Oval Office with former First Lady Hillary Clinton and then hugging her in what appears to be a park.
The video is realistic looking (although Clinton does look at least 20 years younger). There’s no disclosure that the meeting depicted in the video never happened and that it was completely fabricated using AI.
Kudos to KFOR, the Oklahoma TV station that rooted out the source of this pestilent threat to American democracy.
The ad was created by a PAC called “Make Oklahoma Great Again” (how original) that was funded by a single $900,000 donation from a nonprofit called “Oklahoma Leadership Advocacy Group.” Where the $900,000 came from is anybody’s guess, because the nonprofit is organized under a chapter of the IRS code that allows it to keep its donors a deep dark secret.
Oklahoma Leadership Advocacy Group has another video out that attacks three of the four top candidates in the race and praises Drummond to the sky.
KFOR tracked down the man who runs both Oklahoma Leadership Advocacy Group and Make Oklahoma Great Again, a political operative named Jarred Brejcha.
Turns out he’s also the Chief Operating Officer of CAMP, which stands for Campaign Advocacy Management Professionals, an Oklahoma City political consulting firm, which has been paid more than $1 million to help manage Drummond’s gubernatorial campaign.
Nonprofits like Brejcha’s can spend any amount of anonymous money they want on supporting or opposing candidates. There’s supposed to be some “public benefit” to justify their tax-free status, but the federal rules are practically never enforced.
What such nonprofits can’t legally do is coordinate their “outside” expenditures with the campaign.
Despite his executive position with CAMP, Brejcha told KFOR that he doesn’t have anything at all to do with the Drummond campaign, which he said is handled by a different team within the firm.
Sounds reasonable. I mean, who wouldn’t trust a guy who makes deceptive AI deepfake campaign videos for a living?
In an only-in-Oklahoma twist of irony, Brejcha was chairman of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, the state’s campaign watchdog agency, as recently as two years ago.
So let’s bring this back to Kansas for a minute.
Our Legislature had a chance two years ago to take steps to protect us from this sort of deceptive political advertising.
The record shows that on Feb. 12, 2024, a bill advanced out of the House Elections Committee, with strong bipartisan support, to require that deepfake ads be labeled with the warning “This (image/video/audio) has been manipulated.”
The bill died 11 days later when House Speaker Dan Hawkins of Wichita failed to bring it to a floor vote before the deadline for new legislation.
It was probably too much to hope for, that Kansas lawmakers would pass a common-sense bill to vaccinate the body politic against deepfake ads.
They hate vaccinations.
Ordinarily, I’d illustrate a story like this with a screenshot from the deepfake video in question — it was first-rate work and probably fooled a lot of Oklahomans.
But some people just look at pictures on social media and I don’t want to amplify the deception.
So I’m using a screenshot of Brejcha and Drummond instead, so our Oklahoma readers can know who’s trying to trick them, and who stands to benefit.
Oklahomans, don’t forget to vote Tuesday. If the state’s not going to protect you from AI, you’ve got to protect yourself.
This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 4:58 AM with the headline "AI deepfake video tarnishes Oklahoma governor race; and Kansas has no defense | Opinion."
