Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) needs your help to keep the US Senate in Republican hands. So screamed a handful of Facebook ads that bought Cruz’s campaign committee this month. But none of them actually raised money for the Republican candidates in Georgia. Instead, every penny donated went straight to … Cruz.
The Cruz campaign bought 15 separate ads on Facebook in the past two weeks, each featuring a video of the senator dramatically evoking the need for two United States Senate seats in Georgia’s election contests.
Gun grabbing, tax increases, open borders and stacking from the Supreme Court. That is the radical democratic agenda if they win Senate elections in Georgia, ”Cruz stated.
He asked for a contribution of five dollars to his new “Keep Georgia Red fund.” But Facebook users who clicked through to the online donation page – and read the fine print at the bottom – would see that the actual beneficiary was Cruz’s own campaign committee, not Sens. Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue, the two Republicans running for re-election in Georgia. .
Cruz is just one of many elected officials from both sides who use Georgia’s competitive – and extremely expensive – decision-making games to raise money for himself. Those officials are increasingly doing that on Facebook, where a political advertising ban was lifted this month that was imposed in late October, but only for ads in Georgia.
That has sparked a wave of Facebook ads calling for Senate competitions in the state on behalf of political candidates outside the state. In some cases, the ads don’t even mention the runoff matches, but instead target users in Georgia in an attempt to abuse Facebook’s state-specific political ad policies.
Facebook did not respond to questions about that apparent loophole. But the efforts of Cruz and others illustrate the difficulties the company has had in crafting a political ad policy that is not criticized for being too restrictive or too easy to exploit.
The social media giant’s advertising ban, intended to limit misinformation related to the election results, temporarily halted a massive political fundraising tool around and after the election. When the company relaxed its advertising ban in Georgia this month, campaigns seized the opportunity to return to the Facebook ad game. Last month, the National Republican Senate Committee encouraged its members to use the enthusiasm of donors around the layoffs to build their own fundraising programs.
Senate leader Mitch McConnell has spearheaded his caucus. His campaign involved sending a few text messages and showing Georgia-targeted Google ads linking to a page on the GOP fundraising platform WinRed, stating that donations will benefit McConnell’s own campaign committee.
In fact, according to a source familiar with the scheme, McConnell’s Georgia-focused fundraising efforts have served to cover the cost of using his massive email and text lists to solicit donations split between the senator and the two candidates for the Republican Senate in Georgia. A McConnell spokesman said his post-election day fundraising efforts, subsidized by his direct Georgia-focused fundraising, raised more than $ 3.4 million for Loeffler and Perdue.
These split fundraising efforts are an important mechanism to increase the base’s financial support for senate candidates in Georgia, according to guidelines published by WinRed. Some members of Congress have taken advantage of that strategy. For example, representatives Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA) and Ashley Hinson (R-IA) both bought Facebook ads this month that link to donation pages that the proceeds divided between their own campaign committees and those of Perdue and Loeffler.
However, many continue to spend donations purely on their own campaigns or political vehicles. And it’s not just Republicans who get involved. For example, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) posted a few Facebook ads this month with urgent pleas to financially support Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia.
“If you want to take back the Senate and retire Mitch McConnell, the single most important thing you can do now is make a donation to elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia,” the ads said. The ads link to a donation page indicating that the money is not going to Ossoff or Warnock, but to Gillibrand’s political action committee, Off the Sidelines PAC.
Gillibrand’s PAC largely exists to send funds to other Democratic candidates, so it’s not inconceivable that some of the money raised through those ads will support Democrats in Georgia. Indeed, the PAC donated to both Ossoff and Warnock ahead of the general election. But by law, it can only give each of them $ 5,000 before the January second round, probably less than what the PAC is raising with calls for the Peach State’s senate games.
Then there are those who try to raise money from all the political activities in Georgia without even pretending to be concerned about the layoffs.
Congressman Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) bought a handful of Facebook ads last week promising to use his new post in a fruitless and conspiratorial effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. “Donate below to join the fight and help save our American way of life!” it reads. Another five Cawthorn ads asked people to “defend freedom and defend Georgia!” But like everyone else, they link to Cawthorn’s own donation page. Cawthorn won’t be sworn in until this weekend.
President Donald Trump himself has led the pack by using the games in the Georgia Senate to raise money for his own political endeavors. His political team has been buying Google ads for weeks and sending fundraising emails declaring the urgent need to keep the majority of the GOP Senate and contribute to his own political groups. But the fine print of those requests makes it clear that much of the change will go to Trump’s own committee and a smaller portion to the Republican National Committee.
The tactic has spread even more widely since Facebook opened its political ads to calls related to Georgia. Like Cruz, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) posted a large number of ads this month asking for donations on behalf of his Republican colleagues Loeffler and Perdue.
“Democrats are trying to destroy our country with their radical agenda. The center of that struggle is now in Georgia. We must keep the Senate, ”ten Facebook ads from the Lee campaign declared this month. “Join the fray by chipping in what you can.”
This month, ten Lee campaign ads associated with the Senator’s WinRed page are running. His office insists that the money make its way into upcoming games.
“Senator Lee’s multiple Facebook campaigns have raised tens of thousands of dollars for the candidates abandoned in Georgia,” a Lee spokesman said in an email. “Some of those campaigns have allowed donors to donate to Senator Lee, but less than $ 100 has been raised that way.”
But the language on the WinRed page promoted in Lee’s recent Facebook ads is pretty clear: “Your contribution will benefit Friends of Mike Lee.”