U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Friday said that the strategy Democrats allegedly used in Alaska, where they are accused of recruiting independent Senate candidate Daniel J. Sullivan to run against incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), is similar to the artificial intelligence (AI) advertisement a dark-money group ran against her during Tennessee’s gubernatorial election, which she narrowly won on Tuesday.
Referring to the purported Alaska strategy, which has been denied by those Democrats accused of plotting it, Blackburn argued the allegations amount to a federal offense, before suggesting similar occurred in Tennessee.
“What we have to look at is what we were just talking about, conspiracy and fraud, and how they carried this out,” said Blackburn. “Bear in mind also, it is a felony offense to impersonate for the purpose of deception, and try to deceive people, and you are seeing the Democrats practice this kind of deception.”
On the Alaska allegations, Blackburn added, “This is a crime, it should be investigated, and the individuals involved in this should be prosecuted,” before saying investigators “have some of the email chains now that were discussing this, and people are beginning to talk.”
Blackburn also referenced her own race, which saw the Virginia-based dark-money group, American Exceptionalism Institute, spend $1.4 million against her during the Republican primary, including advertising that appeared to use AI to make unfounded claims about Blackburn and the pharmaceutical industry.
“In my race, there was an ad, an AI-generated ad, that was impersonating me in order to deceive,” said Blackburn. “And of course, individuals that do this, they should be held to account.”
"This deception needs to stop."@MarshaBlackburn says recruiting a candidate with a similar name and appearance in Alaska was clearly an attempt to mislead voters, and those involved should face prosecution pic.twitter.com/eaefmwAOir
— The Faulkner Focus (@FaulknerFocus) November 6, 2026
Unlike the allegations in Alaska, which involve Democratic Party operatives, tax and campaign filings link the American Exceptionalism Institute to Republican political committees that paid Jeff Roe’s Axiom Strategies, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
Roe is a longtime Republican strategist from Missouri and the campaign manager for the 2016 presidential campaign mounted by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). More recently, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hired Axiom to run his U.S. Senate campaign. Earlier this year, prosecutors alleged that Roe offered to geofence a federal judge’s home in order to ensure the judge would see a favorable news article about his client, a convicted fraudster from India.
Blackburn’s campaign filed a complaint over the advertising in August, describing the ad as containing “knowingly false and defamatory accusations of bribery and criminal corruption” which did not “have a shred of factual support.”
In September, the complaint was referred to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti for further consideration.
Tennessee’s new legislation regarding AI use in political advertising notably took effect in July, requiring clear disclosures whenever the novel technology is used for ads depicting candidates engaging in speech or actions that did not occur in reality.
Blackburn will be inaugurated as Tennessee’s next governor on January 16, 2027. She won the gubernatorial election by about 2.6 percent.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Marsha Blackburn.
