Democrats spend millions on anti-Musk ads

As grassroots rage against Elon Musk and his DOGE team continues to grow, Democrats in Washington and their digital consultants are seeking to take advantage of the moment.

Over the past month, Democratic campaigns, party committees, and outside groups have spent millions of dollars on Facebook and Instagram ads that mention Elon Musk. Since February 1st, more than 45 liberal advertisers have spent a combined $3 million on Meta’s ad platform, primarily on grassroots fundraising campaigns that use Musk as a key motivation for Democrats to donate. 

Those advertisers span the Democratic Party’s ideological spectrum and include heavy-hitting U.S. Senators like Chris Murphy, Jon Ossoff, and Bernie Sanders, as well as downballot candidates for upcoming special elections in Florida and Wisconsin. 

Democrats’ national party committees have also made Musk central to their grassroots engagement strategies. The DSCC, Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, has spent over $500,000 in recent weeks on ads attacking Elon Musk for his destructive role in the Trump administration. The Democratic National Committee and Democratic Governors Association have each spent over $100,000 on similar Musk-related fundraising ads. 

Democrats’ digital fundraising firms, which create and place these ads, are obsessive about ROI. The fact that so many prominent campaigns and organizations are running Musk-themed ads signals that they must be working.

“A data disaster averted”

Over the weekend, Shane Goldmacher at the New York Times published a disturbing look at a “Democratic data disaster averted.” 

The piece outlines how Democrats’ aging technology infrastructure, built by NGP VAN, has fallen into disrepair due in part to the company’s private equity ownership. Apparently, things have gotten so bad that the Democratic National Committee considered executing a clause in their contract that would require NGP VAN to hand over its software’s source code.

I spent several years of my career working at NGP VAN, and it’s been disappointing to see the steady decline in investment and innovation in their political suite of tools. Pretty much everyone I worked with back then has either been laid off or left the company. Because political campaign technology is not a super lucrative industry, it’s been really difficult for competitors to build any alternatives to VAN’s core CRM. If you’re interested in a deep dive into the company’s role in the Democratic Party’s tech, data, and organizing operation, you can read this landscape report compiled by Micah Sifry last year.

Speaking of disasters…

Last week, two former senior Biden officials pissed off just about everyone online when they sat down for separate interviews at the Harvard Institute of Politics and chose to relitigate President Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race last summer.

Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (who has spent the first months of the Trump administration resharing glossy magazine profiles of herself on Instagram) said she was “shocked” by Democrats urging Biden to drop out. Top Biden Buddy and multi-millionaire Mike Donilon told Harvard that it was “insane” for Biden to be forced out of the race. 

These mind-numbing takes emerged the same week that two veteran journalists, Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, announced a new book on “President Biden’s decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again.” Thompson and Tapper’s Original Sin will be released in early May, and will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows around DC. The book seems pretty unique in its kind of salacious, anti-Biden framing from two non-partisan journalists, who promise to “let the facts speak for themselves.”

More things you should read

• Internet MAGA people are starting to get upset with Trump’s DOJ, after Pam Bondi handed right-wing influencers binders full of “The Epstein Files” that didn’t contain any new information on the case.

• Ali Breland published a piece in The Atlantic about how the Trump administration is being staffed by podcasters and right-wing media figures.

• According to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Meta’s recent policy changes will make hate speech far more prevalent on the company’s platforms.

• Media journalist Oliver Darcy spoke with Aaron Rupar’s Public Notice on how the media is tackling Trump 2.0.

• According to new research from Media Matters, people are calling into right-wing radio shows to voice frustrations with the Trump administration.

• Dave Jorgenson, the Washington Post TikTok guy, joined YouTube and is publishing a new show called Local News International.

• Last week, YouTube announced that it is “the most frequently used service for listening to podcasts in the U.S.”

One last thing: Trump’s golf cart moment trending on TikTok

President Trump recently hit the links with pro-golfer Bryson DeChambeau. They did a little golf cart karaoke, where Trump shared a playlist of Sinatra and old opera music with his new golfing buddy. DeChambeau, who has a following of 1.5 million on TikTok, shared an edited video of the moment on TikTok, which has now received over 31 million views:

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