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AI campaign text sparks deepfake law questions in Minnesota

By and FOX 9 Staff
Published  April 16, 2026 5:13pm CDT
Politics
FOX 9

The Brief

    • Minnesota’s political campaign season is underway, with concerns about AI-generated campaign messages.
    • A recent text message targeting GOP Senate candidate Adam Schwarze has drawn attention for its use of an AI-manipulated image.
    • Lawmakers say the image does not violate Minnesota’s deepfake campaign law.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minnesota’s political campaign season is kicking into high gear and some operatives are crying foul over AI-generated campaign messages.

AI-generated campaign image

What they're saying:

A Lakeville city council member and a former state senator voiced concerns on social media about a campaign text message. The message criticizes GOP Senate candidate Adam Schwarze and features what appears to be an image of him with former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.

A 2023 law bans deepfake campaign messages within 90 days of a nominating convention and the GOP’s convention is happening in May. 

FOX 9 spoke to a couple of legislators who worked to pass the political deepfakes law, and they agreed this is not something that would fall under the political deepfakes ban. They described the AI image as more of a cartoonist caricature and not realistic. 

Dig deeper:

The law specifically prohibits an image or video that is "so realistic that a reasonable person would believe it depicts speech or conduct of an individual who did not in fact engage in such speech or conduct."

PoliticsMinnesotaArtificial Intelligence