Did Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger publish a campaign video where she promised, with a sinister smile, to never encroach on the Constitution and never take your guns? No, that's not true: This AI-generated video was published on X by the Loudoun County Republican Committee and did not originate from Spanberger. An AI tool animated two still portrait photographs of Spanberger from 2023.
The fake video appeared in a post (archived here) published by the official X account of the Loudoun County Republican Committee on February 23, 2026. It was captioned:
Thanks @GovernorVA !!!!!
The screenshot below was taken at 47 seconds:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from X.)
There are many AI tools which can animate an existing photo of a real person. The AI-generated scene (pictured above) was produced with a photo (archived here) published by the New York Times on Nov. 13, 2023. The real photo is pictured below.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from The New York Times.)
Between 46 and 47 seconds there is a glitch in the AI-animated video, a flagpole suddenly appears in the background (pictured below).
(Image source: Lead Stories composite with screenshots from X.)
The first 46 seconds of the video are styled as an attack ad against Spanberger. It reviews a series of issues presented in a negative sarcastic manner, culminating with the AI-generated likeness of Spanberger setting fire to a painting of Jesus. Spanberger's official U.S. House of Representatives portrait (archived here) from the 118th Congress in 2023 (pictured below left) was used as the source for the AI-animated video scenes (examples pictured below right side).
(Image source: Lead Stories composite image with screenshots from Wikipedia and X.)
The full list of nine issues presented:
- Tax dog walkers
- Tax middle class
- Destroy Small Businesses
- Gas powered blowers illegal
- Illegal gun grab
- Supports abortion
- Sanctuary State
- Hates Virginians
- Hates God
The final scene of the video has the AI-generated likeness of Spanberger saying:
But I promise to make life more affordable for Virginians, to never encroach on the Constitution, and I'll definitely never take your guns.
Lead Stories reached out to Governor Spanberger's office for comment and will update this article if we receive a reply.
