Fake Michigan Influencers May Be Pushing Paid Political Ads For Haley Stevens

Paid political influencers, nondisclosure agreements, and videos with no disclaimers. A lot is going on beneath the surface of what looked like grassroots Michigan support.

Another campaign controversy has soured Michigan residents on Haley Stevens, the U.S. representative from Michigan's 11th congressional district who is currently running for U.S. Senate.

Influencers are popping up on Michiganders' social media feeds saying that they live in Michigan and that they are supporting Stevens for the U.S. Senate.  Then each video will have a specific political talking point.

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It doesn't take much digging to find that the "Michigan" influencers are nowhere near Michigan.  For example, IvyMich (@Ivy.in.mi) on TikTok is also Ivy Pemberton (@wheres_ivy_) based out of California.

TiktTok Screenshot

You can see Ivy uploading videos wearing the same outfits on the same day, both from Michigan and California.  In a recent video from the Ivy in Michigan profile, Ivy is walking down a street with cars displaying California plates.  That video's location was tagged as "Motor City - Detroit."

Since we published this story Friday morning, Ivy has deleted her fake Michigan accounts on IG and TikTok and made her main TikTok account, based in California, private.  She turned the comments off on her main IG account, but it's still active.

We were also surprised by the number of reports from our audience sharing at least a dozen more influencers from California to Ohio and Tennessee pretending to be from Michigan making identical videos.  We'll have another story about that published later today.

Is it illegal to deceive the public with your political campaign?  Probably not.  However, Michiganders have noticed, and they are not happy.  People all over social media are not only calling out Ivy, but they're pointing out that Haley Stevens is such a bad choice for Senate that she can't find an actual Michigan influencer to talk nice about her.

This is following a leak of alleged documents stating that Haley Stevens was paying influencers, via AIPAC, up to $1,500 a video.  The documents also allegedly stated that they had to sign nondisclosure agreements.  This explains why Ivy chose to block me instead of provide a comment for this story.

Here's where this gets legally interesting.  The FEC requires a disclaimer on paid advertisements.  So does TikTok.  The Ivy in Michigan videos are not tagged as ads, nor do they contain the legal disclaimer.  So, aside from the deception, that seems suspicious.  It's worth pointing out that every video on the Ivy in Michigan account is pro-Haley Stevens.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has spent an astounding $30 million to back Stevens in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan against Abdul El-Sayed.  This primary election is on August 4, 2026.

We've reached out to both Ivy and the Haley Stevens team for comment.  They have not gotten back to us.

What do you think about these deceptive practices so far in this campaign, which include ads featuring former President Barack Obama—giving the false impression that Obama was endorsing her- to paying influencers to pretend they live in Michigan?