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This story begins with a decidedly modern political clash, one that feels less like a traditional debate over policy and more like a glimpse into the chaotic future of campaigning. Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat hoping to unseat Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s hotly contested 3rd Congressional District, has had enough. Her attorneys have fired off a cease-and-desist letter, not over a controversial ad or a misleading mailer, but over a series of bizarre, unsettling videos. These aren’t ordinary attack ads; they are deepfakes, created with artificial intelligence and posted directly to Van Orden’s X account. In these clips, an AI-generated version of Cooke appears to say things she has never said, often in absurd, exaggerated scenarios. It’s a tactic that feels ripped from a sci-fi thriller, but for Cooke, it’s no fiction—it’s a smear campaign designed to deceive voters by putting dangerous, fabricated words directly into her mouth. The letter is a legal gauntlet thrown down, signaling that the line between digital parody and outright defamation has been crossed, and that the fight for this district is now being waged with ones and zeros as much as with arguments and ideas.
The specific videos that prompted this legal action are both jarring and revealing. In one, an AI-generated Cooke sneers, “Let the peasants eat cake. They will vote for me anyway,” a crude attempt to paint her as an out-of-touch elitist. In another, her avatar declares, “There is a 100 percent chance I just voted for two Communists,” an accusation so outlandish it borders on the surreal. But the video that truly crossed the line, according to the cease-and-desist letter, was shared on August 4th. It shows a fake Cooke speaking into a microphone while an AI-generated image of former President Joe Biden appears in the periphery. The fabricated Cooke claims she’s running for Congress to “take advantage of as much corruption as possible and give every illegal alien free healthcare.” Attorneys for Cooke describe this as “pure fiction.” Ben Stafford, her lawyer, wrote bluntly: “Ms. Cooke never made the statements attributed to her. You are airing this false content to attempt to fool the voters of Wisconsin into believing she said something she did not to harm her reputation for your own political gain.” The letter is a sharp rebuke, reminding Van Orden that while he may see these videos as clever political theater, they are, in the eyes of the law, potentially damaging falsehoods.
The legal reasoning behind the letter digs into Wisconsin’s defamation laws, which hold public figures accountable for acting with “actual malice” when spreading false information. Defamation, the letter explains, includes publishing a false statement with the intent to harm someone’s reputation. By sharing these AI-generated videos, Van Orden isn’t just being crude or immature; he’s potentially violating state law. The letter even takes a jab at the dignity of his office, stating, “Not only are these ads beneath the dignity of your office, but Wisconsin’s common law of defamation fills the gaps yet remaining in Wisconsin’s statutory protections against fake AI.” This is a critical point: while laws around deepfakes are still catching up to the technology, traditional defamation law already provides a path for recourse. The implication is clear—if Van Orden continues to use AI to misrepresent Cooke, his campaign could face lawsuits, financial penalties, and the kind of legal headache that no politician wants. The letter also warns that Cooke’s attorneys are actively monitoring Van Orden’s social media, carefully cataloging every post, every video, every potential misstep, and that they are weighing “all legal options” if the behavior persists.
Cooke, for her part, responded not with legal jargon but with a sharp, pointed statement that sought to turn the tables. “Derrick Van Orden can’t run on his record, and is instead spending his time and energy producing AI videos putting words in my mouth,” she said. Then, in a clever rhetorical move, she connected the deepfakes to Van Orden’s support for the “One Big Beautiful Act,” a federal bill that included tax breaks for tech companies that build data centers—the very infrastructure that powers AI. “Ironically,” Cooke added, “these deep fakes are facilitated by the same data centers Derrick Van Orden gave special tax breaks at the expense of our energy and health care bills.” It’s a powerful counterpunch, framing Van Orden as someone who champions the technology enabling his disinformation campaign while claiming it comes at the cost of everyday Wisconsinites. Her statement reframes the issue from a simple political attack to a larger critique of Van Orden’s policy choices, suggesting that his support for AI-friendly tax breaks has a dark, personal consequence for his opponent. It’s a reminder that in the digital age, the tools of misinformation are not neutral—they are built, funded, and incentivized by political decisions.
Naturally, Van Orden’s campaign did not take the cease-and-desist letter lying down. In their own news release, they accused Cooke of throwing a “full blow tantrum,” a dismissive framing meant to portray her as emotional and unprofessional. They attacked her political history, claiming, “Rebecca Cooke has spent six years running for office, lying to voters about who she is and her record.” This is a reference to Cooke’s previous electoral attempts: she first ran for the 3rd District seat in 2022, losing in the Democratic primary to Brad Pfaff. In 2024, she won the primary but lost to Van Orden in the general election by a narrow margin of about three percentage points. The campaign’s response is classic political spin—deflect, attack, and undermine credibility. They are trying to contextualize the deepfakes as just another salvo in a long-running political war, dismissing Cooke’s outrage as the whining of a perennial candidate who can’t handle the heat. But the underlying issue remains: regardless of Cooke’s political record or past losses, the fact is that Van Orden is using AI to make his opponent say things she never said. No amount of spin can change that.
The final chapter of this story is perhaps the most telling. On social media this week, Van Orden responded to the cease-and-desist letter not with a statement of contrition, not with a legal defense, but with yet another Grok-assisted video. This one features a red AI-generated duck, which exclaims, “Cease and desist!” It’s a mocking, juvenile taunt, a clear signal that Van Orden intends to continue his strategy regardless of legal threats. The duck is a perfect metaphor for the state of modern political discourse: absurd, disconnected from reality, and designed to provoke rather than inform. For voters in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, this exchange is more than just entertainment; it’s a warning sign. It shows how deepfakes can be used to erode trust, spread misinformation, and distract from the real issues that matter. Cooke’s team is left with a difficult choice: pursue costly and uncertain legal action, or continue to fight an opponent who seems determined to drag the campaign into a digital gutter. Van Orden’s flippant response suggests he believes the law is toothless and that voters will either laugh along or be too confused to care. But the broader question lingers: in a democracy, what happens when politicians feel free to fabricate reality itself? This exchange is a cautionary tale, a small but significant battle in the larger war over truth, trust, and the future of political speech in an age where seeing is no longer believing.