Eric Swalwell’s Campaign Spent $42K on ‘Childcare’ Expenses in 5 Months After the Election

Rep. Eric Swalwell’s campaign spent tens of thousands of dollars after the election on childcare expenses for the California Democrat, raising potential ethics concerns for a lawmaker who has been accused in the past of using his campaign war chest as a "personal piggybank."

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LeBron James Endorsed Kamala Harris. Then She Paid His Company $50K.

Kamala Harris’s campaign paid $50,000 to the production company of billionaire NBA superstar LeBron James, who endorsed the failed Democratic candidate in a deceptively edited video attacking Donald Trump days before the presidential election.

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Booker Slapped With Ethics Complaint for Fundraising Off Record-Breaking Senate Speech

Sen. Cory Booker's (D., N.J.) marathon 25-hour speech last week broke a Senate speaking record. But his fundraising off that speech broke long-standing Senate ethics rules, a watchdog group alleged in a complaint filed Tuesday.

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A woke Wisconsin win is just the start of the left’s 2026 push



When I went to bed Tuesday night, the race for the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court had already been called — unsurprisingly — for Susan Crawford, the ultra-woke candidate. With more than two-thirds of the votes counted, Crawford held a lead of more than 10 percentage points.

Despite complaints from Wisconsin Democrats about Elon Musk’s support for Republican candidate Brad Schimel, Crawford outspent him by a margin of roughly 2 to 1. Her campaign benefited from funding from George Soros, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), and other wealthy backers with culturally progressive agendas. Powerful public-sector unions in Wisconsin also rallied behind Crawford, opposing Musk’s calls for reducing the influence of government bureaucrats.

Does anyone seriously believe Democrats won’t use Susan Crawford’s court victory to gerrymander two new congressional districts?

As usual, the Democratic base — racial minorities and college-educated white women — turned out in strong numbers to support her.

Watching the activist left unite behind a candidate who embraces the very ideologies that writer Christopher Rufo has documented in his research on institutional wokeness, I was reminded of the overly optimistic narratives coming from some in the conservative media.

We keep hearing that the Democratic Party is falling apart — that it’s resorting to riots and hurling obscenities because it has lost the support of ordinary voters. But these talking points ignore political reality.

The claim seems to rest on Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, which was hardly a landslide, and came against a tongue-tied mediocrity. Tuesday night’s results in Wisconsin tell a different story. With record Democratic turnout, Crawford defeated Schimel handily. The left, far from collapsing, remains highly mobilized and effective.

The cheerleading from Fox News pundits likely stems from their inability — or unwillingness — to believe that anyone could support a party as deeply unserious and radical as today’s Democrats. But the reality is right in front of us.

Why would any voter — citizen or not — back candidates who insist there are more than two genders, advocate for biological men in women’s sports, excuse the burning of Tesla dealerships, and elevate political carnival acts like Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)?

The answer is straightforward: The left, across the Western world, is backed by immense institutional power. It enjoys the support of major financial interests, the legacy media, most of the entertainment industry, and nearly the entire education system. It also benefits from every new expansion of the electorate.

More importantly, the left plays to win — and to stay in power. Does anyone seriously believe Democrats won’t use Susan Crawford’s court victory to gerrymander two new congressional districts? Of course they will. And if they retake the House, they’ll waste no time rallying their obedient congressional foot soldiers for yet another effort to impeach Donald Trump.

Democrats will also keep using the courts to target Trump’s administration, relying on friendly federal district judges to strike down any executive action that doesn’t serve their agenda.

And let’s not forget the 10 to 20 million illegal aliens the Democratic Party has welcomed and intends to keep here — criminal gang members included. These individuals are not just here to stay; they’re here to vote. As Elon Musk pointed out, though lapdog media outlets rushed to deny it, Democratic politicians and bureaucrats have pushed to issue Social Security numbers to noncitizens — numbers that can serve as voter ID.

The left has mastered the art of weaponizing the judiciary, both in the United States and across Europe, against its already weakened opposition. It reflexively smears anyone who resists its cultural agenda — on family, gender, or borders — as a “Nazi.” And it works.

The left wins because it has more power: more institutional support, more funding, more cultural dominance. The notion that it's collapsing because it acts outrageously is laughable. That behavior energizes its base. As we saw on April 1, even in so-called purple states, that base remains large — and ready to deliver.

One major advantage the American right still holds — unlike, say, its counterparts in Germany, England, Spain, and elsewhere in the West — is a substantial electoral base. Roughly 40% of the electorate continues to resist a full leftist takeover. We also have a president willing to use whatever authority he’s given to push back against the left’s grip on the permanent bureaucracy.

These advantages matter. I’m delighted they still exist. But let’s not kid ourselves: The Democrats and their ideological allies are not vanishing. Far from it.

And there’s no reason to pretend that those who reliably vote with the left, excuse its political games, and indulge its outbursts and riots somehow share “common ground” with their opponents. That fantasy only weakens the real resistance. It promotes the delusion that if we’re just a little “nicer,” the Democrats will magically start playing fair.

We’re told we can return to the supposed golden age when Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill shared drinks and Irish jokes after trading barbs in public. If that era ever existed, it’s gone — and it isn’t coming back.

Revealed: Pro-Kamala social media millions that couldn’t sync ‘Brat’ with ‘Democrat’



The abrupt withdrawal last year of President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, followed rapidly by his replacement with Vice President Kamala Harris, irked many voters left out by the process. Yet social media seemed to ooze with enthusiasm and Gen Z-friendly hipster appeal.

Influencers flooded the web with neon matcha green pro-Harris videos synced to beats from singer Charli XCX’s album “Brat” released last year. The poppy rave videos, gushed journalists, showed that Harris embodied the confidently independent “brat” vibe conveyed by the music. Social media pages bubbled with memes celebrating Harris as the voice of queer and black youth, in contrast with the Republican agenda of “white supremacy.” Digital creator Amelia Montooth, in one viral TikTok video, kissed a woman and tried searching for pornography, actions her sketch suggested would be banned if Harris lost the election.

The attempted reach and spending of the pro-Kamala Harris 2024 effort is unprecedented.

Harris, a career politician favored by the Democratic Party’s establishment, never quite fit the bill as an icon of activist movements. But the sudden influencer buzz seemed to transform the stodgy former prosecutor into an icon of the cultural zeitgeist.

As it turns out, the tidal wave of enthusiasm was not entirely genuine. Much of the content, including Montooth’s videos, was quietly funded by an elusive group of Democratic billionaires and major donors in an arrangement designed to conceal the payments from voters.

RealClearInvestigations obtained internal documents and WhatsApp messages from Democratic strategists behind the influencer campaign. Way to Win, one of the major donor groups behind the effort, spent more than $9.1 million on social media influencers during the 2024 presidential election — payments revealed here for the first time. The amount was touted in a document circulated after the election detailing the organization’s accomplishments.

The effort supported over 550 content creators who published 6,644 posts across platforms TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and X. Way to Win coached creators on phrases, issue areas, and key themes to “disseminate pro-Kamala content throughout the cycle,” a post-election memo from the group noted.

The look behind the curtain reveals that at least some of the image-making around the Harris candidacy was carefully orchestrated by the same types of covert social media marketing often used by corporate brands and special interest groups. Such campaigns provide the illusion of organic support through the authentic appeal of trusted social media voices.

Way to Win, in internal messages, touted its work with a stable of Democratic Party-affiliated influencers and activists, including Harry Sisson, Emily Amick, Kat Abu, and Dash Dobrofsky. The group also overtly cultivated “non-political creators” — influencers typically known for travel vlogs, comedic skits, or cooking recipes — and seeded them with “positive, specific pro-Kamala content” that was “integral in setting the tone on the Internet and driving additional organic digital support.” The effort often took the form of talking points that were rapidly distributed to the in-network creators.

“Bro who is Tim Walz,” said @AbeeTheArtist, one of the TikTok creators backed by Way to Win. “He’s a football coach, that’s hard,” the influencer continued. “It’s time for Republicans to drop out, it’s not looking good for ya’ll!”

Identity appeals fall flat

In a series of internal presentations about the influencer campaign, Way to Win emphasized its data-driven approach. “We know what messaging works,” noted Liz Jaff, a branding strategist working with Way to Win, during a call with donors last year. She touted the use of an AI-based focus group tool developed by Future Forward, the Harris campaign’s primary super PAC.

Jaff also explained the process for developing talking points that could be inserted into organic-appearing messages and posts on social media. “We then convey that to the influencers, who take that into their own words,” continued Jaff. “We then test those videos and see what needs to be boosted,” she added, referring to paid media efforts to amplify specific TikTok videos or favored streamers.

The lofty promises of message mastery, however, often fell short. Way to Win directly financed a series of clunky YouTube shows and liberal identity politics-oriented social media skits designed to bring voters out to support the Harris campaign and Democrats more broadly. There’s little evidence that such measures moved any significant numbers of voters during an election in which Democrats lost historic levels of support from key constituency groups — the youth vote, Latinos, and black men swung significantly to Donald Trump last year, upending decades of voting patterns.

Ilana Glazer, a comedian who starred in the Comedy Central show "Broad City," received Way to Win funding for a series of election videos called “Microdosing Democracy,” in which she half-heartedly endorsed Harris as she lit a spliff of marijuana. Another TikTok and Instagram series backed by the donors, called “Gaydar,” featured interviews quizzing people on the streets of New York City about gay culture trivia with little election-related content.

Way to Win also funded a caravan with an inflatable IUD to Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Raleigh, North Carolina; St. Louis, and other locations. The tour, which featured content creators producing posts along the way, was designed to bring attention to claims that Trump would ban contraceptive devices.

In an apparent attempt to boost Harris’ support among black men, Way to Win directly funded a series of YouTube interview-style talk shows called Watering Hole Media.

“I heard a brother say to me, ‘Man, I didn't know I was going to be excited when Kamala was selected,’” said Jeff Johnson, a managing director with the lobbying firm Actum LLC who worked as a host for the Watering Hole Media series “Tap In.” “One brother said, ‘I’m not even fully sure why,’” continued Johnson. “No, seriously, he said, ‘When I look at her, though, she reminds me of my aunt,’ and I said yes, so there is this communal piece.”

The discussion, taped at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last August, buzzed about the “through line” from the Black Panthers to the Nation of Islam to Harris' nomination, suggesting her candidacy represented another moment in radical black politics.

The Way to Win-sponsored media group sponsored many similar discussions attempting to buoy the Harris candidacy with appeals to racial identity politics.

Despite the well-funded efforts, few tuned in. The seven video programs produced at the DNC collectively garnered fewer than 1,000 views. One video had fewer than 40 viewers.

Where did the money go?

Questions have mounted over the campaign spending decisions by Harris and her supporting organizations. The Harris campaign and her super PAC spent over $1.5 billion in the last months of the campaign, with much of the money flowing to consultants and media advertising. Alex Cooper, who hosted Harris for an interview on her “Call Her Daddy” podcast, was baffled about why the campaign spent about $100,000 on a “cardboard” temporary studio set that “wasn’t that nice.” Others have raised similar concerns about payments to Oprah Winfrey’s production firm.

“Our 2024 creator program reached key audiences with nearly a billion views, but there’s more to do, and we’re applying lessons from last cycle,” a Way to Win spokesperson said in a statement to RCI.

“Sometimes in presidential campaigns, there are times when there aren't any cost controls,” observed Mike Mikus, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania. “The biggest question is whether they had any empirical evidence that this TikTok messaging would work.”

The payments occupy a hazy area of election law. Way to Win structured the funds through nonprofit corporations that paid various influencer talent agencies — firms such as Palette Management and Vocal Media. The money was not listed in Federal Election Commission disclosure portals that show political funds spent during the campaign.

While television or radio ads require disclaimers showing the groups responsible for paying for the advertisements, there are no equivalent mandates for TikTok stars or Instagram personalities who receive payment to promote election-related content. Despite some attempts to reform election transparency regulations, minimal progress has been made. The FEC has deadlocked over attempts to form new rules to govern the influencer space, leaving the entire medium virtually lawless regarding campaign cash.

Way to Win operates several entities and corporations, most of which do not disclose donors. The group did not respond to a request for comment for more information. However, the cache of documents about the influencer campaign pointed to some clues. Way to Win hosted a series of donor-only events in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., with representatives of the Open Society Foundations, the charity backed by billionaire investor George Soros. OSF did not respond to a request for comment.

Democrats are hardly alone in payola for influencers. Republican campaigns have spent several hundred thousand dollars on similar social media marketing agencies that tout the ability to seed content with popular accounts on X and TikTok.

But the attempted reach and spending of the pro-Kamala Harris 2024 effort is unprecedented. Way to Win justified the spending sprees as the only way to compete with pro-Trump voices and popular podcasts, such as Joe Rogan, which the Harris campaign eschewed.

“Our goal this year was to combat conservative content domination on Instagram and TikTok. We did that,” Way to Win claimed in a triumphant memo to donors after the election.

“Had more Americans gotten their media from Instagram and TikTok,” the December memo argued, “Kamala Harris would be the next president of the United States.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and LeeFang.com and made available via RealClearWire.

Report: Foreign-Funded Dark Money Group Shelled Out $1 Million To Elect Wisconsin Leftist Susan Crawford

A left-wing dark money group bankrolled by foreign cash donated $1 million to an organization seeking to elect leftist Susan Crawford to Wisconsin’s supreme court, a new report reveals. Campaign finance records first unearthed by Americans for Public Trust (APT) show that the Sixteen Thirty Fund gave $1 million to A Better Wisconsin Together Political […]

With Control At Stake, Big Money Leftists Look To Buy Another Seat On Wisconsin Supreme Court

Democrat sugar daddies George Soros, Reid Hoffman, J.B. Pritzker, and others give millions to liberal candidate in costly race.

Harris Campaign Paid $100K to Obama for ‘Travel’ and $58K to Rapper Cardi B, Who Claimed She ‘Didn’t Get a Dollar’ From Campaign

Kamala Harris’s campaign paid nearly $100,000 to a shell company for former president Barack Obama to travel to events and roughly $60,000 to rapper Cardi B, who said she "didn’t get a dollar" to appear alongside the failed presidential candidate.

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Activist Group Stacey Abrams Founded To Help Herself Hit With Record $300,000 Fine

The New Georgia Project raised millions for the leftist race-baiter's 2018 campaign without disclosing its cash.