Dark money fuelled disinformation in Michigan, Pennsylvania

Heading into the November election, a massive expenditure of “dark money” in a disinformation campaign is under way designed to depress the Arab American vote in Michigan and the American Jewish vote in Pennsylvania.

During the past three election cycles, “dark money”, expenditures from groups that ostensibly operate independently from official campaigns and whose funds need not be reported, has played an increasingly important role in US elections. We’ve also seen disinformation campaigns before, organised efforts to use deceptive, misleading or exaggerated claims for political advantage.

A dark money group undertook such an effort in 2000, seeking to derail Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign with a sizable television ad buy claiming he was too old (though his opponent was about the same age) or too radical to win (though he’d already won most primaries and polls showed him beating the expected Republican nominee by a larger margin than other Democrats). What made the effort more dishonest was the group sponsoring the ads: The Democratic Majority for Israel, who wanted to defeat Sanders because they didn’t trust his more balanced approach to the Middle East.  Knowing that argument wouldn’t win over Democratic voters, they never mentioned Israel in their ads, using both disinformation and misinformation for a political end.

That effort’s success encouraged more pro-Israel dark money groups to join the fray in 2022 and 2024, spending well over $100 million in more than a dozen congressional races. They promoted misleading or exaggerated claims about the character or leadership qualities of candidates they opposed without ever mentioning their goal of defeating those deemed insufficiently pro-Israel.

This election the dark money disinformation has a deceptively ingenious twist. A pro-Donald Trump group is spending tens of millions of dollars targeting both Arab American and American Jewish voters in two battleground states, with contradictory messaging designed to discourage them from voting for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. This effort includes direct mail, and digital ads on social media platforms like: X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

Almost daily, Michigan’s Arab Americans voters in precincts of heavy concentration are receiving glossy mailings with messages like: “Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff: Unwavering Support for Israel” or “Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff, the ultimate pro-Israel power couple”. Targeted video messaging on social media sites say things like “Kamala Harris stands with Israel”.

Meanwhile, homes in Pennsylvania areas with heavy concentrations of Jewish voters are receiving messages like: “Kamala Harris will embolden anti-Semites” or “Donald Trump always stands up for the Jewish people”. And targeted video messaging on social media platforms say “Kamala Harris will not be silent about human suffering in Gaza” or “Two-faced Kamala Harris: Standing with Palestine and not our ally, Israel”.

These mailings and social media posts are paid for by a dark money group, Future Coalition PAC. Researchers have identified Elon Musk, principal owner of X and a strong supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential bid, as a major donor to this group.

It is important to note that these ads contain video of Harris speeches in which she makes statements very supportive of Israel and others in which she expresses sympathy with Palestinian suffering. This effort is classic disinformation because of the selective use of quotes and the exaggerated claims to mislead targeted groups of voters, discouraging support for the Democratic candidate. We could also ask, “What impact would these ads have if reversed, with Arab American voters targeted with pro-Palestinian ads and American Jewish voters targeted with pro-Israel ads?

Disinformation has long been a problem in American elections. Now that problem is a crisis, with massive expenditures from dark groups and their ability to use advanced micro-targeting to identify and deceive specific voter groups using their social media behaviour.

I am reminded that twice in the last two years a group of Democratic National Committee members tried to get the party to ban dark money use in primaries. We warned that allowing billionaire Republican donors to skew elections with disinformation and misinformation threatens our democracy. Party leadership blocked both efforts to vote on our resolution. Unfortunately, the very dark money disinformation effort funded by Republican donors about which we warned may contribute to upending the campaign of the Democratic nominee for president.

The writer is president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute