A media organization
funded by leftist billionaire George Soros spent $9 million on digital Facebook ads supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign. Courier Newsroom, a Democrat dark money group that purports to be a network of local news outlets, is behind the ad campaign launched in August.
The ads primarily promote Democratic candidates, including Harris—though some also attack President Donald J. Trump over issues such as abortion and access to contraception.
While Democrat and Republican political action committees (PACs) can run their own digital ads on Facebook, the social media platform labels the content as coming from a political organization and requires a disclaimer identifying the group behind the message.
However,
Courier Newsroom is able to skirt this requirement by submitting its ads through a separate portal for media news outlets despite their clear partisan content. Additionally, while election and candidate PACs must disclose their donors publicly through the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Courier Newsroom is not subject to the same rules.
The Democratic dark money ad campaign has spent a total of $9.2 million since August 3, 2024, focused predominantly on the key battleground states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina. While the group’s spending may appear paltry compared to the hundreds of millions being spent on television advertising, digital ads are relatively cheap and can still reach large audiences online. In addition, Courier Newsroom appears to have used propriety data to micro-target its Facebook ads in an effort to influence young women.
In April, The National Pulse reported that
Tara McGowan, founder of Courier Newsroom and its parent company Good Information Inc., had made almost 20 visits to the Biden-Harris White House. The meetings have raised concerns regarding potential election coordination.