lansing — A fake video falsely portraying a Republican candidate as gay and touting a coalition of transgender supporters emerged over the weekend in a crucial Michigan Senate race, a test for a new law seeking to block the use of artificial intelligence to deceive voters.
Saginaw attorney Jason Tunney is one of four Republican candidates running for the Republican nomination in the Feb. 3 special primary election for the 35th Senate District. The Republican and Democratic primary winners will face off May 5 in a special general election that will determine whether Democrats retain their slim majority in the state Senate.
On Saturday, residents in the district that includes Bay, Saginaw and Midland counties began noticing a website and Facebook page someone had set up called “Trannys for Tunney.” A since-deleted Facebook page featured a press release claiming that “LGBTQ conservatives” in the district had formed a “grassroots coalition” to support Tunney.
Similarly, the Facebook page posted a fake video showing Tunney kissing another man and another showing her speaking in front of a whiteboard with the message “The Candidate Our LGBTQA+ Community Needs,” according to a collection of now-deleted clips and images reviewed by The Detroit News.
“To all the trannies out there, we're cheering for you,” Tunney apparently said in the fake video.
According to his campaign website, Tunney is married to a woman named Pamela and says he is “fighting for conservative values.”
In a statement, Tunney labeled fake websites, videos and Facebook pages “unacceptable.”
“The recent use of deepfake videos and artificial intelligence to maliciously target my campaign is an illegal and deceptive attempt to influence the February 3 special primary election,” Tunney said in a statement.
The rash of misleading images occurred about six weeks before the primary election and nearly two years after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a series of bills mandating disclaimers for deceptive media generated by artificial intelligence with the apparent purpose of harming candidates 90 days before the election.
So-called deepfake videos are widely expected to play a larger and potentially more dangerous role in U.S. politics in the coming years.
Rep. Penelope Czernoglou (D-East Lansing) sponsored the bill, which Whitmer signed into law in December 2023. Czernoglou said he is almost certain the video targeting Tunney violates his policy requiring a disclaimer for such material.
Regarding the upcoming 2026 election, Czernoglou said, “None of the AI-related laws have yet been tested, so this year we're going to see a lot of people pushing the envelope.”
mislead voters
The rise and ease of use of artificial intelligence and the proliferation of social media are enabling candidates to create and disseminate false images and videos that can mislead voters about their opponents' positions and personal history.
Robert Wiseman, president of the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen, said in 2023 that deepfakes threaten to “undermine the prospects for a functioning democracy by making it impossible for voters to distinguish between real media and AI-generated fake content.”
A Facebook page called “Trannys for Tunney” falsely claimed Tunney was gay and posted what appeared to be an artificial intelligence-generated image of people standing in front of a transgender pride flag logo.
The image read, “We are gay, we are conservative, and we all support Jason Tunney in Michigan's 35th Senate District.”
The website contained a fake image of a person named “Tomas E.” of Bay City, who allegedly supported Tunney.
“I'm a gay conservative business owner,” Thomas E. said. “Jason is the only one talking about freedom and decency.”
“Trannys for Tunney” also posted a fake video of Tunney kissing another man with the words “Vote Jason Tunney for Senate.”
deceptive campaign video
A fake video shows Republican Michigan Senate candidate Jason Tunney thanking “trannies for Tunney.”
Another fake video showing Tunney standing in front of a whiteboard appears to be a doctored version of Tunney's image and remarks from a Dec. 4 speech he made while standing in front of a whiteboard with fellow Republicans at Delta University.
The deceptive video did not include the necessary disclaimer to make it clear that it was manipulated. Under state law, a first-time violation of the standards is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail or a fine of up to $500.
Rep. Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassard), who worked with Mr. Czernoglou on the deepfake package, said Mr. Taney's fake video appears to violate the law, or at least the intent that lawmakers were trying to prevent.
Bierlein said he can't be sure because Michigan hasn't had many cases so far. But as a candidate, he acknowledged that the possibility of fake videos leaking onto the internet is frightening.
“It's easy to portray any politician as doing something they should never do,” Bierlein said.
“Better people than that.”
Bierlein noted that to prove someone violated deepfake laws, police officers and investigators would likely have to be able to determine who was behind the “Trannys for Tunney” video.
It was not immediately clear who set up the website or Facebook page.
The website's domain name was registered on Saturday after the Facebook page began actively posting about Tunney. The website now redirects to Tunney's actual campaign site. And the Facebook page was no longer available as of Wednesday.
In a statement, Taney said the “opponent” had chosen to “mislead voters with fabricated content.”
“Candidates should be held to higher standards, and voters deserve an honest campaign that focuses on facts, not digital deception,” Tunney said.
His three Republican opponents in the primary have denied any involvement on their websites or Facebook pages.
Republican Christian Velasquez of Midland condemned the tactic in a written statement. Velasquez is a businessman who unsuccessfully ran for state senate in 2022.
“The Velasquez camp had nothing to do with the fake group that was generated last weekend,” Velasquez said. “When our campaign was informed of this stunt, our digital team relentlessly reported the Facebook page to Meta and the website to GoDaddy.com for violations of Michigan election law until both were removed.”
A third candidate, former Saginaw City Councilman Andrew Wendt, a Republican, said he spoke with Tunney about the fake video and labeled him “childish.”
“We’re better people than that,” Wendt said.
Another Republican candidate, Chadwick Twillman of Saginaw, said in response to questions from The Detroit News that he had no knowledge of Taney's fake video. Mr. Twillman's campaign website describes him as a truck driver, financial executive and journalist.
Mr. Twillman initially said that people have the “freedom to do any kind of free speech that we want.” When asked about the state law regulating deepfakes in election campaigns, Twillman said it sounds like it gives candidates some protection.
Twillman added that he would never participate in the production of fake videos like the one created against Tunney.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
