Republicans run bizarre AI deepfake ad showing James Talarico singing about trans kids

This story originally appeared on Them.

Turns out when you have nothing on your opponent, you resort to ole faithful: AI tools and transphobia.

Citizens for Sanity, a pro-Trump PAC has bought TV ad space in Texas to air an AI-generated 15-second video featuring an deepfake of Democratic senate candidate James Talarico singing a song about transgender kids parodying “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. The ad buy was announced exclusively in right-wing news outlet The Daily Caller.

“Boys in white dresses with blue satin sashes/Girls dosed with hormones til they grow mustaches,” the AI-generated Talarico, who is dressed in Maria’s iconic black dress and apron from The Sound of Music, sings in the ad. “Changing the gender of all your offspring/These are a few of my favorite things.” The ad never displays any disclaimer that the Talarico on screen has been generated by AI.

While it is clearly meant to reference The Sound of Music in both dress and song choice, the melody that deepfake Talarico sings in the ad does not match the original for “My Favorite Things.” (Perhaps the G-O-P should re-listen to “Do-Re-Mi.”)

Citizens for Sanity says that its mission is to “defeat ‘wokeism’” and anti critical-thinking ideologies,” which “threaten the very freedoms that are foundational to the American dream.”

The GOP have been working overtime to sink Talarico’s senate campaign with similar tactics as the party used in the 2024 election, with political ads like “Kamala is for they/them.” Since his upset victory in the Democratic primary, Republicans have criticized Talarico for his support of trans people, especially trans kids, with White House official Stephen Miller even bizarrely calling Talarico, who is cisgender, a “transgender senate candidate.”

In March, Talarico responded to a question from MS NOW by saying that the media routinely focuses on trans issues rather than the cost of housing or prescription drugs. “The only thing the media wants to ask me about are trans athletes,” he said. “What I would say is that the only minority destroying this country is the billionaires.” He added that people are focused on the “wrong 1%.”

He continued, “Trans people aren’t taking away our healthcare. Undocumented people aren’t defunding our schools… It’s the billionaires and their puppet politicians. And so we need not only the media, but all of us, to focus on the real problem at hand.”

As of April 1, 2026, per Ballotpedia, 31 states have enacted legislation banning deepfakes in political ads, including Texas. (Citizens for Sanity is based in Washington, D.C., per Influence Watch.) However, the Texas bill, which considers the creation of deepfakes a criminal offense, only bans their publication and distribution within 30 days of an election.