Campaigning ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections has grown increasingly bitter, with personal attacks and smear campaigns against rival candidates escalating beyond conventional limits. In one case, a candidate's estranged mother was enlisted in the mudslinging.
According to the U.S. political news outlet The Hill on the 20th, a video featuring the mother of Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, recently drew attention online. In the 60-second clip, Donna Arthur, Acton's mother, calls her own child "a liar" and urges voters not to support the Democratic Party.
In a 2019 media interview, Acton said she endured a difficult childhood marked by abuse and neglect at the hands of her stepfather, and that she eventually became estranged from her mother. Acton has reportedly not seen her mother since she was 12. Court records obtained by The Associated Press show that Acton was sexually assaulted by her stepfather at the time. "It's horrifying to see my mother do this, and it's hard to believe that an opposing candidate would exploit someone who is clearly not well," Acton said.
The Hill reported that while it remains unconfirmed who produced and distributed the video, it appears to have first been posted on The Rooster, a political blog based in Ohio. The blog states that Acton's mother supports Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The controversy widened after Donald Trump Jr., son of President Donald Trump, and far-right activist Laura Loomer shared the video on social media.
The Hill noted that warnings have emerged not only from Democrats but also from some Republicans that the video crosses a line and could trigger a backlash against Ramaswamy. Rep. Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat, called the video "the most vile thing I've seen in politics."
The Ohio governor's race is one of the most closely watched battlegrounds of this election. According to the U.S. election analysis site Decision Desk HQ, Ramaswamy, who has Trump's endorsement, trails Acton by 3.5 percentage points.
Defaced Bibles and "celebrate 9/11": deepfakes go too far
Negative advertising that uses artificial intelligence to attack opponents is also proliferating, often by distorting the rival candidate's positions. In the Texas U.S. Senate race, the campaign of Republican candidate Ken Paxton circulated a fake advertisement showing Democratic candidate James Talarico defacing a King James Bible to turn it into the "King James Talarico Bible" while saying, "God was not binary and was not a Christian. God said let there be six genders." In the Michigan U.S. Senate race, the conservative super PAC Frontline Action is distributing a synthetic video showing Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed playing a card game bearing phrases such as "Death to America," "Don't celebrate Thanksgiving" and "Celebrate 9/11."
A report released on the 19th by the Wesleyan Media Project, a nonprofit that analyzes political advertising, found that at least 220 AI-generated political advertisements have circulated ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Spending on them reached $137 million, far exceeding the $50,000 spent during the 2024 presidential election. Republican candidates or Republican-aligned political action committees produced 81% of these AI political advertisements, while Democrats accounted for just 12%. By spending, Republicans accounted for 88% of all AI advertising.