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Trump-Aligned PAC Drops Six Figures in Texas on 'AI Brainrot' Ad Putting Talarico in a Dress
"We need to make this type of undisclosed AI political advertising illegal yesterday," one tech journalist said.
Jun 09, 2026
Republicans are once again using artificial intelligence to attack US Senate candidate James Talarico. This time, they're spending big to air an ad featuring the Democratic nominee for Texas in a dress singing a song about transgender children.
It follows a previous video posted by the Senate GOP's official social media channels in March featuring an uncanny AI rendering of Talarico reading what they described as "extreme statements" he'd previously made on X (then known as Twitter) discussing his views on religion and support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Now, a Trump-aligned dark money group known as Citizens for Sanity is taking it even further. According to a report from The Daily Caller on Tuesday, the group has spent "six figures" on an ad campaign portraying the Texas state representative in a dress singing a parody of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music about trans kids.
“Boys in white dresses with blue satin sashes. Girls dosed with hormones til they grow mustaches. Changing the gender of all your offspring. These are a few of my favorite things," Talarico is shown belting out in the ad.
The ad references comments made by Talarico in 2023 in which he celebrated the trans youth who had shown up, along with other activists, at the Texas state capitol to hold a protest in opposition to Senate Bill 14, which sought to ban transition-related medical care for transgender minors, part of a wave of hundreds of pieces of legislation proposed across the US attacking LGBTQ+ individuals.
Speaking on a podcast, Talarico said: “I love—I’m just going to say this because it’s on my mind—the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state Capitol to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn’t have to, but it was an inspiration to watch.”
As Talarico became the Democratic nominee in Texas, where he'll face off against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in November, official Republican channels have spliced the comments to portray Talarico as a creep.
One post in March, from the Republican National Committee Research account on X with 1.3 million views, quotes the interaction dishonestly, as follows:
HOST: "Something that you love that's not family or friends?"
TALARICO: "Trans children."
The ad is in line with others put out by Citizens for Sanity in 2022, when it spent a staggering $93 million attacking Democrats in swing districts. As The Guardian explained in 2024:
The group... flooded the airwaves in battleground states and swing districts with deeply offensive and often misleading ads. Some ads targeted LGBTQ+ rights and attacked “Biden and his radical allies” for supporting “the woke left’s war on girls’ sports” and the “woke war on our children”. Others pictured Latino immigrants and characterized them as criminals “draining your paychecks, wrecking your schools, ruining your hospitals [and] threatening your family”, declaring that “Joe Biden and the Democrats have erased our southern border.”
With AI deepfakes playing an increasing role in political campaigning—especially among Republicans—the group is discovering new frontiers for misinformation in this year's election.
The 15-second spot it plans to roll out across Texas makes no indication of the fact that it was generated with AI, nor of the fact that Talarico never actually uttered any of the words in the song.
Like many other states, Texas has a law prohibiting the use of AI deepfakes to deceive voters during elections. However, it would not apply to this ad, since it is limited to state races and only applies within 30 days before the vote.
Lawmakers in the state have introduced legislation to strengthen the law by scrapping the 30-day rule and requiring disclosures on paid political content generated with AI. But despite some bipartisan support, the reforms failed to pass through the GOP-controlled Legislature.
While this new Talarico ad would be unlikely to fool most voters, others—like the one released by the Senate GOP in March—are already realistic enough to influence even savvy viewers, explained Sandra Cai, the founder of Plurall AI, an AI deepfake and fraud detection platform.
"By the time a viewer questions what they saw, the impression is already made," she said in a social media post. "The 2026 midterms laid bare an uncomfortable truth: Disclosure labels are easy to miss and easy to ignore. The tools to produce these ads are cheap, fast, and widely available. Regulation remains a patchwork, often applying only in the final weeks before an election."
On the left, the Talarico ad has led to familiar bewilderment that such misleading material has not been outlawed.
"We need to make this type of undisclosed AI political advertising illegal yesterday," said the liberal tech journalist Taylor Lorenz.
And while some Talarico opponents boasted that they were "going to win the midterms by programming boomers with AI brainrot ads," others on the right said they were also disturbed by the trend.
"James Talarico is awful," said Frank DeVito, senior counsel at the right-wing Napa Legal Institute. "But this use of AI to generate a video of a political opponent saying or doing what he did not really say or do is not good."
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Declaring Victory in California, Progressive Randy Villegas Aims to Oust GOP Rep. Valadao
"Despite the onslaught of outside corporate money spent against us, we have shown that working people are ready for change," said the congressional hopeful.
Jun 09, 2026
Progressive Randy Villegas on Tuesday declared victory in a primary race for California's new 22nd Congressional District, a key part of Democratic efforts to combat President Donald Trump's attempt to maintain GOP control of Congress by rigging maps.
California's recent voter-approved redistricting made several swing districts held by Democrats less competitive and targeted five Republican-held seats, including the 22nd District, represented by GOP Congressman David Valadao.
Under California's "jungle" primary system, the two candidates from all parties with the most support advance. As of Tuesday, with 72% of votes in, Valadao had 24,376 votes (41.9%), Villegas had 18,149 (31.2%), and Jasmeet Bains—a more moderate physician and state Assembly member backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)—had 15,695 (27%).
Villegas, a Central Valley native who owns an auto repair shop and teaches at a community college, said in a Tuesday statement that "voters in the Central Valley have spoken and they have declared that the Valley is not for sale."
"Despite the onslaught of outside corporate money spent against us, we have shown that working people are ready for change," he continued. "We are ready for the government to work for us, not just the wealthy and well-connected. We want our hard-earned tax dollars delivering affordable healthcare, not senseless wars abroad."
"David Valadao has sold us out for too long, voting to cut healthcare for families in the Valley, and siding with corporate interests over working people," he added. "I'm going to be focused on winning over every voter in our district and showing that I will be the true fighter for our community in DC."
Throughout the primary campaign, Villegas won support from key leaders in California, from labor icon Dolores Huerta to Democratic US Reps. Nanette Barragán, Robert Garcia, Ro Khanna, Linda Sánchez, and Lateefah Simon. Other congressional backers included Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas), and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
In addition to congratulating Villegas, Frost on Tuesday highlighted how political action committees tried to tank the progressive Democrat, saying on social media that "he defeated special interests and dark money PACs who spent millions to take down a champion running to fight for working people, pass Medicare for All, and protect immigrants."
Looking to November, when Democrats hope to reclaim control of Congress, Frost predicted that "Randy will defeat David Valadao."
While the DCCC backed Bains—and, according to Axios, some Democratic lawmakers are now threatening to withhold dues absent "a course-correction" after the party's House campaign arm spent $135,000 on her unsuccessful run—Villegas won over the CPC and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).
"Randy Villegas' victory is a powerful reminder that perseverance, community, and hard work can overcome even the toughest obstacles," Sánchez, chair of the CHC BOLD PAC, said Tuesday. "Randy built a grassroots movement rooted in the values that define the Central Valley. His victory reflects the aspirations of working families who want a leader who understands their struggles and will fight for their future."
Other organizations backing Villegas include End Citizens United, Indivisible, Leaders We Deserve, MoveOn, the National Education Association, National Nurses United, Our Revolution, the Working Families Party (WFP), and more.
"Once again, voters are showing they want progressive fighters —not status-quo conservative Democrats—representing them in Washington. Unlike his opponents, Randy Villegas refused to be bought by the very corporations and special interests making life hell for Valley residents," said David Hogg, co-founder and president of Leaders We Deserve.
"Leaders We Deserve couldn't be prouder of our support," he continued, "and we look forward to helping Randy do what establishment, corporate Democrats have repeatedly failed to do: defeat Republican David Valadao."
Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, also took aim at the status quo in a Tuesday statement.
"The DC establishment spent millions to defeat Randy, because he’s not in the pocket of their corporate donors. Now, he's headed to a general election against Trump yes-man David Valadao, who voted to slash Medicaid and WIC benefits," he said, referring to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
"We know that Valadao and his corporate backers will spend outrageous amounts of money to stop Randy," Mitchell added, "but you can only screw over working people so many times before it comes back to bite you."
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Thousands of NYC Tenants to Get Millions in Back Rent Forgiven After Mamdani Targeted Their Prior Landlord
A representative from the Union of Pinnacle Tenants said the agreement to forgive back rent is "a big victory" for tenants and represents a "real direct monetary redress of people's issues."
Jun 09, 2026
Thousands of tenants in New York City will no longer have to pay back rent after their prior landlord was targeted by democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier this year.
Gothamist reported on Tuesday that Summit Properties, which in March bought 93 properties from bankrupt owner Pinnacle Group, has agreed to forgive tenants' back rent, which some refused to pay because of what they said were unsafe living conditions in their buildings.
Vivian Kuo, a representative from the Union of Pinnacle Tenants, said the agreement to forgive back rent is "a big victory" for tenants and represents a "real direct monetary redress of people's issues."
Mamdani took action against Pinnacle in January as one of his first official acts after being sworn in as mayor, noting that the landlord was responsible for "more than 5,000 housing violations and 14,000 complaints."
In buying the buildings from Pinnacle, Summit agreed to cure half of all reported violations within 60 days and to invest at least $30 million over a five-year period to repair and improve the buildings.
According to Gothamist, Summit had already lined up its purchase of the buildings before Mamdani took office, although the mayor worked with the tenants union to extract commitments from the company to make much-needed fixes.
Jordan Barowitz, a spokesperson for Summit, told Gothamist that the company "fixed hundreds of apartments, cured thousands of violations, and exceeded our commitment."
Mamdani has regularly put New York City landlords on notice, holding "rental ripoff" hearings where tenants have the opportunity "to tell the city exactly what your landlord’s been getting away with” and help bring about "real policy changes."
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