Going deepfake: HD 68 candidate Jennifer Carlson files complaint over AI-altered mailers

“DEI JENNIFER CARLSON — Using YOUR Tax dollars to push the WOKE Agenda,” reads a political mailer against the Montana House District 68 candidate from Churchill.

Carlson is shown waving an LGBTQ+ flag and wearing a “she/her” button in the mailer.

There’s one problem: The photo and others like it are fake, she says.

“It’s just crap and propaganda,” Carlson told the Chronicle on Wednesday.

Carlson said churchgoers confronted her about the mailers two days after she first received one.

“’Why are you wearing a pronoun button, what in the heck are you doing? I thought you were a Republican’,” Carlson said of their reactions. “I’m ticked off. There is nothing true about it.”

There’s also, Carlson says, nothing legal about it.

Montana Senate Bill 25 from the 2025 session regulates the use of AI-generated content and “deepfakes” in election communications. It’s illegal to distribute or sponsor AI-altered images, audio or video constituting a false image within 60 days of an election, unless a corresponding disclaimer is included.

“They did not put a disclaimer on the mailer,” Carlson said. “They broke the law. They altered my image in a way to make something false look true.”

Carlson mailed a complaint to the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices on Monday. She was awaiting a response as of Wednesday.

“This mailer containing altered images — with the intent to injure the reputation of the candidate or otherwise deceive a voter, appears to a reasonable person to depict an individual saying or doing something that did not occur,” reads the complaint. “It provides a fundamentally different impression.”

One of the mailers comes with a Lewistown address and is paid for by a group called Accountability in State Government. Dan Bartel is listed as treasurer and founder.

Bartel, a Republican, represented House District 29 from 2017 to 2021, and Senate District 15, encompassing Scobey, Plentywood and Glasgow, from 2021 to 2025.

Accountability in State Government is a Montana PAC “working to make sure leaders serve the people with honesty, openness, and responsibility,” according to the organization’s website.

“Honesty builds trust. Leaders must speak the truth, even when it is hard, so citizens can rely on their word. Openness keeps government accountable. Decisions should be clear and visible to the people they affect. Responsibility means owning every choice. True leadership puts the good of the people above personal gain.”

The Chronicle reached out to Bartel to find out if the mailers bearing his name and organization conform with the tenets of his group’s philosophy. He had not responded as of Wednesday night.

Another mailer with a nearly identical image is also credited to Bartel. The card references Montana House Bill Nine.

HB9 authorized approximately $559,000 in 2025 for cultural and aesthetic grants administered by the Montana Arts Council.

Funded by interest from the Coal Severance Tax Cultural Trust, the bill supports museums, arts organizations and history projects.

“I did vote for it, so did Dan Bartel, and so did many other state House members,” Carlson said. “It was this cultural grant to give money to things like the Montana Ballet Company, the Museum of the Rockies, and Mother Lode Theatre, all kinds of different cultural arts grants in the $10,000 range that come from interest off a coal trust account.”

A planning committee approves which organizations receive grants. The entire House votes on recommendations, Carlson said.

“If I voted for a bill that gave money to a theater, they applied for this grant, the committee says ‘yes, an organization can qualify for the grant’,” she said. “If it makes it so a roof isn’t leaking, an elevator works, a building is Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, or 20 kids can go to ballet class for free, those are all good things.”

Another mailer says Carlson hosted “a DEI film festival and a play titled ‘Diversity Day’”, that she hosted “A workshop on Queer History”, and mentions “transgender art projects.”

“If last Wednesday one of those places had an event I don’t like, that’s OK. This is America,” Carlson said. “It has nothing to do with DEI, transgender policy, naked art shows or whatever it says on there.

“The sick thing is it wouldn’t be a (legal) problem with anyone if it was just false. The only reason it could be a problem is my picture was altered without a disclaimer.”

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has become a target of many Republicans. It aims to ensure workplaces and institutions represent diverse backgrounds, including race, gender, age, while creating a welcoming environment offering equal access to opportunities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

“We had one bill saying, ‘we’re not going to teach DEI’ in school,” Carlson said. “I don’t even know when the mailer says there was a past DEI bill, which one that is.”

Carlson has raised approximately $3,000 for her campaign. She has roughly $1,800 remaining.

“I’m not sure why they are breaking the bank attacking me,” she said. “In my last three campaigns I was described as an extreme Republican, hard-right, crazy, and now ‘I’m so liberal’ that I’m being called a Democrat.

“These mailers are attacking me, but they are also attacking groups of people. I don’t attack people.”