Bait-and-switch ad campaign carefully planned to trigger potential Harris voters: study
With 25 focus groups and $45 million, political advisors to X owner Elon Musk pitted people against each other to cause a rift in the Democratic party and depress turnout for Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 campaign, according to a report Friday.
The Washington Post sorted through a social media ad campaign that reporters spotted in Michigan in September. The newspaper uncovered what it called a manipulation effort that resulted in protest votes and pulled down Democratic excitement.
They found Muslims were bombarded by ads promoting Harris' backing of Israel, while Jewish voters were told she was supportive of Palestine. Left-wingers were told Harris has "abandoned the progressive dream" while more conservative voters heard of her liberal agenda.
The campaign used "false positives," meaning ads promoting Harris' on certain platforms were directed to voters who were thought to be turned off by them.
There was also an ad set that targeted white, working-class Midwestern men and featured "activists who wanted 'a world without gas-powered vehicles,' a ban on fracking and affordable housing for undocumented Americans."
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"The entire effort grew out of research by Building America’s Future, a conservative political nonprofit that was founded during the first Trump administration by Republican consultants Generra Peck and Phil Cox," the Post reported.
Musk gave cash in 2022 to Building America’s Future, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Former Ron DeSantis pollster Ryan Tyson told the Post that it was clear that many people hated Trump and would never be persuaded to support him.
"But once you get past White progressives, every other historical demographic stronghold from the Democrats just started to drop off,” he said. “What did exist was a tremendous amount of voters on the left that were disaffected. And the only persuasion question was whether they could be persuaded to vote.”
According to the report, their effort "worked in concert with a separate project by the Trump campaign to depress turnout for Harris — knowing that Trump would be unlikely to drastically expand his vote totals."
A Trump campaign advisoor confessed their goal was to "push her numbers down."
Indeed, about 15 million fewer people voted for Harris than did President Joe Biden in 2020.