The lead committee working to defeat Virginia’s April 21 referendum on a constitutional amendment to rewrite Virginia’s state map has released a new ad that uses artificial intelligence to create a fake video featuring Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
In the 30-second spot created by Virginians for Fair Maps and shared on social media by tracking site AdImpact on April 14, a narrator says, “Abigail Spanberger and the Richmond Democratic Party want to burn down Virginia’s democracy.” The message was accompanied by a fake video of a smiling person resembling Spanberger lighting a match, pouring gasoline on the fire, and burning down a barn.
Very small text that appears at the bottom of the screen during the first five seconds of the ad says, “Dramatization created by artificial intelligence.”
The ad also claims, without citing any evidence, that the amendment, which would give Congress the power to redraw Virginia’s congressional district maps outside of the regular decennial census-based cycle, would draw rigged districts that would “end competitive elections in Virginia and create a liberal hellhole of massive tax increases, gun grabs, open borders, and welfare for illegal aliens.”
Earlier this month, the same group sent deceptive text messages to Virginia voters falsely suggesting that Mr. Spanberger and President Barack Obama opposed the amendment, even though both men had filmed a video urging Virginians to vote yes.
The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
At the request of President Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers in Missouri, North Carolina and Texas adopted new maps in 2025 aimed at electing more Republicans to Congress. Democratic members of the Virginia General Assembly responded by asking voters to temporarily give the Legislature the authority to draw new maps to combat gerrymandering in the middle of the decade. The proposed amendment would maintain Virginia’s independent redistricting process and return to the regular mapping process after the 2030 census.
“With so much misinformation and disinformation circulating in online political discourse in general, when you are using generative AI to create video clips of real people, even the exaggerated types of images like this latest ad, it blurs the line between what is true and what is not,” Matt Royer, a Democratic digital strategist who has written about the threat of AI to campaign integrity, told The Virginia Independent. “I don’t care if I agree with you. I don’t care if I disagree with you. No matter how you slice it, it’s bad. … This is inherently bad and needs to be addressed before it gets out of control.”
Earlier this year, the Virginia General Assembly considered a bill to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in political advertising, but the House and Senate could not agree on a final version. A bipartisan Congressional bill that would ban the distribution of AI-generated materially deceptive audio or visual media related to federal candidates has not yet received a committee vote.
“Keep Maps Fair, Keep Virginia Honest,” says the Virginians for Fair Maps website, which lists former Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Canter and former Virginia Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares as co-chairs.
The commission revealed that it received $21.5 million (nearly all of the funds) from affiliated underground finance organizations. The commission also reported receiving $50,000 from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group for the firearms industry.
