A campaign video showing four people praising interim Fort Bend County Judge Daniel Wong has been pulled from his campaign's social media pages after it was identified as using artificial intelligence-generated images of Black voters. Wong, who is running to keep the seat he has held on an interim basis since April, says his team had nothing to do with the video and is now pointing fingers at his Democratic opponent for raising questions about it.
The video showed four people voicing support for Wong before it was identified as AI-generated and taken down, according to click2houston.com. Wong told the outlet his campaign had nothing to do with producing the clip, and he also criticized Democratic opponent Dexter McCoy for questioning the support depicted in it. The dispute lands in the final stretch of a closely watched race, with FOX 26 Houston reporting that Wong faces backlash over the now-deleted ad supporting his bid for the permanent judgeship.
Wong and McCoy are vying for the Fort Bend County judge seat in the Nov. 3 general election, with Wong running as the Republican and McCoy as the Democrat, per the Houston Chronicle's rundown of where the candidates stand. Wong has served as interim county judge since April, the paper notes, meaning the fake-video flap arrives just as voters are sizing him up for a full term.
What the Video Actually Showed
Exactly who made or posted the video, and whether any real people's likenesses were used without their permission, has not been established. What is known is narrower: the clip depicted four people praising Wong, it was identified as AI-generated imagery, and the campaign removed it from its platforms once that identification was made, per the same click2houston.com account.
Whether the footage crossed any legal line is also an open question. Using someone's social-media photo to generate a video without consent may raise legal issues depending on what the finished product shows, an unnamed expert told the station, adding that the determining factor is what the video actually depicts and whether that amounts to a violation of law.
Texas Law Lags Behind the Technology
Texas already has a law on the books addressing this territory. In 2019, the state criminalized the publication of deepfake videos within 30 days of an election when the intent is to injure a candidate or sway the outcome, according to the Texas Observer. But a separate proposal that would have required disclosures on AI-generated political ads passed the Texas House and then stalled, never clearing the Senate, the outlet reports.
That gap matters because AI in political advertising is no longer a fringe tactic. The Wesleyan Media Project identified at least 220 political ads produced or enhanced with AI this election cycle, amounting to nearly $137 million in spending, according to NBC News. That's a sharp jump from 2024, when AI ad spending totaled less than $50,000, the outlet notes. Just 27% of those AI-assisted ads disclosed their use of the technology, per the same NBC News analysis, and the group found most of the 220 ads skewed Republican.
Voters Largely Uneasy With the Trend
Public sentiment has not caught up with campaign practice, at least not favorably. A survey commissioned by the American Association of Political Consultants found 73% of respondents said it's unacceptable to artificially generate an image or video for a campaign ad, the Texas Observer reports, while 95% disapproved specifically of creating a deepfake showing an opponent saying something they never said.
University of Houston public-affairs professor Chris Bronk told click2houston.com that this kind of content is everywhere on social media now and getting harder to spot by the day. Experts quoted by the Texas Observer say the law is failing to keep pace with how quickly synthetic political content can spread before anyone verifies it.
The Fort Bend flap is drawing comparisons to a wider pattern of AI-fueled disputes surfacing in down-ballot races, with KHOU framing the episode as part of a broader clash between Wong and McCoy. For now, the episode leaves Fort Bend County voters with one more thing to verify before Nov. 3: whether what they're seeing in their feeds is actually real.
