Republican Fort Bend County Judge Daniel Wong is distancing himself from an AI generated video of Black voters endorsing him, after his own campaign page posted it on Facebook.
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The video showed four Black residents, including one of Wong’s poll workers, praising the interim county judge. Most of them said Wong gave them job opportunities. The Fort Bend County Republican Party shared the video on its Facebook page too.
People quickly noticed something was off. The Houston Chronicle reported that the video carried the usual signs of AI, including warped backgrounds and clothing and the same voice and tone coming out of every person on screen. After commenters called it fake, Wong’s campaign pulled it down.
On Saturday night, the campaign released a statement saying it had nothing to do with making the video.
“The video that has purportedly stirred ‘outrage’ among Democrats was actually created by a Democrat,” the statement read. “It was shared with the campaign, but it was not produced by the campaign. It has now been removed from the campaign’s social media platforms.”
The campaign did not say who made the video, and it did not deny that the video was AI. It also did not answer the Houston Chronicle’s questions about where the video came from.
Instead, the statement went after Wong’s opponent in the Nov. 3 election, Democrat Dexter McCoy. The campaign accused McCoy of skipping meetings and budget hearings and of walking out rather than voting to lower the county tax rate. It also claimed McCoy “has rolled out the tired ‘race card’ to blast fellow Democrats simply because they support County Judge Daniel Wong,” and said he should apologize to voters for “making every issue about race.”
The walkout the campaign is pointing to happened in June, when McCoy and fellow Commissioner Grady Prestage left a Commissioners Court meeting and called it illegal because they disputed Wong’s authority to run it.
McCoy, who currently serves as a Fort Bend County commissioner, answered the AI video with one of his own: real footage of him talking with and helping residents. “Can you spot the AI? Nah you can’t,” the caption read. “This is a real leader making real changes for real people.”
In Texas, a county judge is not a courtroom judge in most large counties. The position is the top elected official in county government, leading Commissioners Court, the board that sets the county budget and tax rate.
Wong, a former Sugar Land City Council member, has been the interim county judge since April. He was appointed after former County Judge KP George was removed from office following his conviction for money laundering. Wong is now running to keep the seat for a full four year term, and a Texas Southern University poll released this month showed McCoy ahead.
Fort Bend County, just southwest of Houston, is one of the most diverse counties in the country.
