{"slug": "defamation-claims-and-ai-ads-inside-the-messy-gop-race-for-utahs-2nd-district", "title": "Defamation claims and AI ads — inside the messy GOP race for Utah’s 2nd District", "summary": "Utah Rep. Blake Moore accused primary opponent Karianne Lisonbee of defamation after she posted and deleted a video implying he engaged in insider trading, while a pro-Moore PAC spent $130,000 on ads blaming Lisonbee for an unpopular data center. The GOP race for Utah's 2nd District has turned increasingly negative, testing the state's reputation for civil politics.", "body_md": "- Karianne Lisonbee has focused recent ads on Rep. Blake Moore's violation of the STOCK Act in 2021.\n- Moore accused Lisonbee of \"outright defamation\" for a post alleging he engaged in \"insider trading.\"\n- A PAC supported by a former Mike Lee staffer is spending $130,000 on digital ads opposing Moore.\n\nThe Republican primary race to represent northern Utah devolved into accusations of defamation and hypocrisy this week as candidates debated whether each other’s tough tactics fit the state’s self-image of elevated politics.\n\nUtah Rep. Blake Moore accused his opponent, former state Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, of defamation on Monday after she uploaded, and then quickly deleted, a post implying that Moore had profited from insider trading as a member of Congress.\n\nMeanwhile, a pro-Moore political committee has tried to blame Lisonbee for the unpopular Box Elder County data center with an ad which Lisonbee supporters see as an example of “Disagree Better” for thee, but not for me.\n\nWhat might be politics as usual elsewhere stands out in the Beehive State, prompting conversations about whether the “Utah Way” can weather the realities of competitive campaigns in a world that rewards negativity.\n\n### What’s the truth about Moore’s stocks?\n\nThe GOP contest to represent the newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District has been messy from the start.\n\nIn March, Lisonbee launched an aggressive campaign to paint Moore — who supports an independent redistricting commission — as responsible for Utah’s mid-cycle map-drawing battle that produced a Democratic seat.\n\nBut as Utah’s primary election day approaches on June 23, the campaign is getting uglier.\n\nOn Wednesday, the state lawmaker posted a video on X with a caption saying she would not stand by as “politicians like Blake Moore” approve reckless spending while “making millions insider trading” — which, if true, would be a federal felony.\n\nAfter the Lisonbee campaign [received complaints](https://x.com/KilianJanz37507/status/2064809616119349432?s=20) from some voters and officials that the post was deceptive, it was removed. The Moore team, however, has attempted to spin the fumble as proof that Lisonbee is unfit for higher office.\n\n“My opponent’s slanderous claims are completely unsupported by evidence and amount to outright defamation against my character and public service,” Moore told the Deseret News in a statement.\n\nLisonbee’s [video ad](https://x.com/KariLisonbee/status/2065438305408413868?s=20) has since been reposted, still containing a reference to Moore.\n\nIn 2021, as a new member of the U.S. House, Moore was fined for failing to disclose more than 70 stock trades worth up to $1.1 million within the 45-days outlined by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012.\n\nThe violations resulted from his financial firm not having a good compliance process in place, Moore said at the time.\n\nOne of the trades Moore failed to immediately disclose while on the House Armed Services Committee was of the military contractor Raytheon. Moore has since moved his stocks to a blind trust, according to his campaign.\n\nLisonbee rejected Moore’s claim that her original post was defamatory, in a statement to the Deseret News.\n\n“It’s clear that Blake is as weak a legal scholar as he is a conservative. I never accused Blake of committing a felony,” she said. “The only reason it wasn’t a felony is because Blake didn’t have a fiduciary duty to a client when he traded while having inside information.”\n\nLisonbee has focused on framing Moore — the fifth-ranking House GOP member — as the face of Congress’ problems. She has promised not to trade individual stocks in Congress and supports banning trading altogether for lawmakers.\n\nThat line worked among the party grassroots, with Lisonbee winning 61.5% of delegate support in the April [GOP nominating convention](https://www.deseret.com/politics/2026/04/25/utah-republican-leader-blake-moore-loses-at-gop-convention-but-advances-to-primary/).\n\n### Are Utah politics unique?\n\nOne Lisonbee supporter, Utah House Majority Leader Casey Snider, thinks the insider trading post was “out of bounds.”\n\nIn April, Snider joined three dozen lawmakers in endorsing Lisonbee, at least in part to protest Moore’s involvement in the 2018 initiative that created a redistricting commission and a right to sue the Legislature over district boundaries.\n\nSnider said he still stands by the endorsement, but said he believes that by shaping some of her messages around personal attacks, Lisonbee’s campaign might be contributing to a trend that he said is hurting what makes Utah politics unique.\n\n“The Utah way is to have this hard debate and these hard conversations without just using hyperbole or falsehoods,” Snider said. “And for whatever reason, in the last couple of cycles, we’ve begun to steer away from that.”\n\nSnider told the Deseret News he reached out to Lisonbee with his concerns that the allegations in her now-deleted post were “categorically false,” and that campaigns better serve voters when they focus on issues of policy.\n\nBut Lisonbee is quick to point out that while Moore is calling fouls, his backers are also willing to play hard ball.\n\nLast week, Defending Utah Values, a PAC run by Owen Fuller, a close ally of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, sent a text to 2nd District voters claiming that the “Box Elder MIDA Data Center” existed because Lisonbee “voted for it.”\n\nThe ad attempts to link Lisonbee’s support of a 2019 law strengthening the zoning authority of Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority with the proposed Box Elder data center which was approved using that power.\n\nLisonbee has publicly stated she opposes the project because of the lack of transparency surrounding the process.\n\nAs an advocate of Cox’s goal to improve political dialogue, Fuller said Defending Utah Values, which has spent $29,500 against Lisonbee, is demonstrating that respectful discourse does not mean ignoring criticisms of a candidate’s record.\n\n“Constructive political debates stick to the facts and avoid personal and false attacks,” Fuller told the Deseret News. “We think that voters should make decisions based on good information, so we’re standing up for Congressman Moore.”\n\nThe PAC seeks to defend candidates like Moore against what Fuller referred to as an effort to “defame (him) on a daily basis.”\n\n### What makes an ad ‘negative’?\n\nThe 2nd District race is right in the middle of a wave of artificial intelligence-generated ads sweeping Utah politics this year.\n\nAds paid for by the Defending Conservative Values PAC depict Moore as a man in a suit with a rubber stamp for a head. Mail pieces with the AI-art list budget items Moore voted for as a reason for why “liberal leadership loves him.”\n\nThe newly created PAC has spent nearly $190,000 on digital ads opposing Moore. It has the support of Sen. Mike Lee’s former senior political adviser, Dan Hauser, whose home address was temporarily included on the group’s FEC filings.\n\n“Go ahead and link me personally to whatever entity you would like to that is working to get an actual conservative to represent that district,” Hauser told the Deseret News in a statement. “Blake Moore has been a failure at that.”\n\nIn her campaign to unseat Moore, Lisonbee has targeted Moore’s votes to renew FISA 702 authorization for U.S. surveillance programs and support for bills to increase the debt limit and maintain federal deficit spending.\n\nIt is essential to point out differences during a campaign, according to former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, who said conservative criticisms are often framed as “negative” by incumbents who want to dismiss attacks from the right.\n\n“Every campaign should assume that a high scrutiny of each other is going to happen as part of that refiner’s fire,” Hughes told the Deseret News. “And nothing’s negative about that. … Really, beauty’s in the eye of the beholder.”\n\nIn his bid for reelection, Moore has touted his leading role in making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, [spearheading](https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/05/14/blake-moore-maga-savings-accounts/) the creation of “[Trump Accounts](https://www.deseret.com/politics/2026/04/06/trump-accounts-take-shape-on-wall-street/)” for children, and securing $6.5 million for Hill Air Force Base and $4.5 million for the Great Salt Lake.\n\nPre-primary FEC filings show Moore with nearly $2 million in cash on hand at the beginning of the month, after raising $264,500 since April, compared to Lisonbee’s $60,000 in the bank after raising $24,000 between April and June.\n\nUtah primary elections will be held on June 23. Mail-in ballots have already been sent out by county clerks.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defamation-claims-and-ai-ads-inside-the-messy-gop-race-for-utahs-2nd-district", "canonical_source": "https://www.deseret.com/politics/2026/06/16/republican-blake-moore-accuses-utah-primary-challenger-karianne-lisonbee-of-defamation-for-insider-trading-comments/", "published_at": "2026-06-17 03:00:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-17 03:24:22.047081+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Blake Moore", "Karianne Lisonbee", "Utah's 2nd Congressional District", "STOCK Act", "Raytheon", "House Armed Services Committee", "Deseret News", "Box Elder County data center"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defamation-claims-and-ai-ads-inside-the-messy-gop-race-for-utahs-2nd-district", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defamation-claims-and-ai-ads-inside-the-messy-gop-race-for-utahs-2nd-district.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defamation-claims-and-ai-ads-inside-the-messy-gop-race-for-utahs-2nd-district.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defamation-claims-and-ai-ads-inside-the-messy-gop-race-for-utahs-2nd-district.jsonld"}}