5 min read
Major Takeaways
Attorney General Lynn Fitch has told Scott Colom to take down his artificial intelligence generated video of Senator Cindy Hyde Smith.
Her office says the video appears to violate a 2024 Mississippi law written to stop deceptive digitizations of candidates.
The warning follows an October 22 request from the Mississippi Republican Party for an investigation and an injunction.
The Colom campaign had already dismissed the party request as a political stunt tied to fear about November 3.
The fight lands eleven days before Election Day in the most closely watched Senate race Mississippi has seen in years.
What the Attorney General Did
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has moved from the sideline to the center of the loudest fight in the Mississippi Senate race.
Her office has told Democratic candidate Scott Colom to take down an artificial intelligence generated video that portrays Senator Cindy Hyde Smith running from reporters at the United States Capitol.
The office says the video appears to violate Mississippi law. It warns that the state can ask a court for an injunction if the video stays up.
The demand landed Friday, one day after the Mississippi Republican Party asked Fitch in writing to investigate the video and to seek that injunction.
By publication time, the office had not released the full text of its message to the campaign, and it had not announced a public deadline for the video to come down.
The Video Everyone Is Arguing About
The spot shows a woman meant to be Hyde Smith on the Capitol steps as reporters crowd in with cameras and microphones.
She covers her face with a leather folder while papers fly from her hands. Then she runs through the building and slides into a black car.
The ad calls the scene based on a true story. Nowhere does it tell viewers that artificial intelligence built the images.
The story underneath it did happen. In September, a reporter approached the senator to ask about a grand jury decision not to indict anyone for the death of Nolan Wells.
She declined to answer and walked to a security guard to end the encounter.
Colom has built a whole theme on that moment. His campaign runs a website asking where the senator is, and his rally crowds carry signs urging voters to pick another senator.
He defended the approach in an interview this month. “I’m portraying a true story,” Colom said. “She calls security on voters.”
The 2024 Law at the Center of It
Mississippi lawmakers wrote the rulebook for this fight in 2024, at Title 97, Chapter 13, Section 47 of the Mississippi Code.
The law makes it a crime to knowingly spread a deceptive digitization of a candidate in the last ninety days before an election.
The sharing must happen without the consent of the person depicted, and with the intent to injure the candidate, influence the result, or keep someone from voting.
A conviction can bring up to a year in jail, a fine of up to five thousand dollars, or both. The law also lets a court order the material stopped through injunctive relief.
One question sits wide open. The law protects content that counts as satire or parody, yet it never defines either term.
That gap is where this case would be fought if it reaches a courtroom, and both campaigns know it.
This is not the first round between these camps. When Colom launched his campaign in 2025, he posted a simulated phone call with the senator.
The state Republican Party asked federal authorities to investigate that video. No penalty from that referral has ever been announced.
Both Campaigns, On the Record
State Republican chairman Mike Hurst laid out the case for his party in a statement on October 22.
“Mississippi law is clear,” Hurst said. “You cannot manufacture a fake video of your opponent and pass it off to voters as real in the final weeks of an election.”
“Scott Colom didn’t label this video as artificial intelligence,” he said. “Instead, he claimed it was based on a true story. That isn’t satire. It isn’t parody. It’s deception, and Mississippi voters deserve better.”
The Colom campaign answered the party request the same day. It called the request a political stunt, one it said showed that “Republicans are worried about November 3.”
As of publication, the Colom campaign had not issued a separate public answer to the attorney general herself.
The Hyde Smith campaign had not publicly weighed in on the demand either.
Why This Fight Matters in Mississippi
Colom, a district attorney in east Mississippi, is running to become the first Black senator from this state since Reconstruction.
Black voters make up about 37 percent of the eligible electorate in Mississippi, and their turnout is the clearest path to an upset.
The national spotlight has already arrived. Former Vice President Kamala Harris rallied with Colom in Columbus on Thursday.
A national Democratic group has also put 1.2 million dollars behind ads backing him, part of the millions flowing into this contest.
President Donald Trump is set to rally for Hyde Smith in Corinth on Monday.
Race forecasters have shifted the contest from solid Republican to likely Republican. The seat still leans toward the incumbent.
That is exactly why a fight over one video, eleven days out, carries this much weight.
What Happens Next
The next move belongs to the Colom campaign. It can pull the video, rework it with a clear disclosure, or hold its ground and wait to see if the state files in court.
The calendar will not wait for any of them. Election Day is November 3.
Urban City Podcast is on the scene in this race, and we will follow every filing, every answer, and every ad from here to the finish.
