A spokesperson said the campaign of Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., another vocal critic of Musk, “stopped all political advertising on X” as of Nov. 11, citing “rampant misinformation on the platform” and the issues the lawmaker outlined in a congressional letter to the company as the reasons. Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post
Advertisers are fleeing Elon Musk’s X amid rising concerns the social media site and its owner are amplifying antisemitic and hateful material.
But an unlikely group of holdouts has continued to pump ad dollars into the embattled platform: Democrats running for office.
Democrats have spent over a million dollars to run thousands of political ads on X, formerly known as Twitter, since the platform lifted its ban on such messages earlier this year under Musk, according to an analysis by The Washington Post of ad disclosure data provided by the company. The group includes some of Musk’s most outspoken critics on the left, such as Reps. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., and Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who last month accused X of “profiting off” of “terrorist propaganda.”
The flurry of ads, taken out by more than 50 Democratic candidates, campaigns and party organizations across federal, state and local elections, suggests many liberal politicians have been willing to overlook party leaders’ qualms with Musk to pay his company to reach potential voters and donors on X, which is still viewed as an important campaign messaging tool.
The platform “will continue playing a key role in shaping political discourse so long as it remains the platform of choice for reporters,” said Jesse Lehrich, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and co-founder of the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech.
But he argued that Democrats should draw the line at “directly funding Elon’s little hate machine” through political advertising. “It’s never been a good advertising platform, and the more polarized it gets, the less likely you are to reach persuadable voters,” said Lehrich, whose group has warned corporations against taking out ads on the site.
Democratic candidates are far from the sole political advertisers on X. Dozens of Republican politicians, many of whom have applauded Musk’s hands-off vision for policing user posts on X, have taken out political ads this year, as have a mix of campaign and interest groups, the Post’s review found.
But surprisingly, Democrats, including some who have scrutinized Musk’s leadership at the company, are spending roughly the same on X ads as Republicans and many Democrats are among the highest spenders, according to the review.
Companies including IBM, Apple and Disney decided to pause advertising on X in mid-November after Musk tweeted in agreement with an antisemitic conspiracy theory. A Washington Post spokesperson said last month the company has also decided to pause ads on X.
Musk over the weekend reinstated the account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the latest controversial figure to regain their profile on X since the mogul took over.
Days after advertisers began to pull out, Goldman, Schiff and more than two dozen other House Democrats sent a letter to Musk and Linda Yaccarino, chief executive of X, to express “grave concern surrounding X’s ongoing failure to abide by its own policies” on “misinformation and hateful, violent, and terroristic propaganda videos.”
“In addition to profiting off violent content by a terrorist organization, X has financially benefited from the spread of demonstrably false and misleading content as well,” they wrote, referencing the war between Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
During the preceding month, the platform was profiting off political ads from at least three of the lawmakers who signed the letter: Goldman, Schiff and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif. Schiff has spent over $90,000 for political ads on the site, the most out of the three.
Goldman campaign spokesperson Simone Kanter said in an email that the campaign “stopped all political advertising on X” as of Nov. 11, citing “rampant misinformation on the platform” and the issues the lawmaker outlined in the letter to the company as the reasons.
Schiff, who along with Porter is running for Senate, has been one of the most vocal critics of X since Musk took over the company in October 2022.
Last December, Schiff hammered Musk in a letter over the company’s handling of hate speech, which he said had led to “an extreme spike in the number of tweets that include slurs.” The two then publicly traded barbs on the site, with Musk firing back that Schiff’s “brain is too small.” Schiff again pressed Musk in October, this time over cuts to the company’s election teams.
Schiff has fundraised off his Musk critiques on X. His campaign account in January posted a link to a donations page with a note: “People who have power are obsessed with keeping it. Like Kevin McCarthy and Elon Musk. I’m committed to holding them accountable. If you’re with me, chip in.”
A Schiff campaign spokesperson declined to comment. The Porter campaign did not return a request for comment. Porter on Thursday signed on to a separate letter voicing concern about “the rapid spread of abortion misinformation and disinformation” on X.
Democrats claimed seven of the top nine spots for most money spent on political ads by a candidate, with some trailing only the top overall spender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R, who launched his 2024 presidential campaign on X. Musk has said he supports DeSantis.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the top ad-buyer among Democrats, has paid more than $169,000 for more than 200 ads on X, including some that have run this month. Schiff, Porter, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom have all spent more than $74,000 apiece.
Other prominent Democrats who took out at least $15,000 in political ads on X include Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minn., and Sens. John Fetterman, Pa., and Jacky Rosen, Nev.
The data included political ads that began running as early as February and that are scheduled to run as late as January. The Post reviewed it for candidates running for federal, state and local office, as well as their campaign PACs, affiliated accounts and Democratic and Republican party organizations.
No other Democratic campaign contacted by The Post indicated plans to halt political advertising on X. Some Democratic officials, such as Tester, Newsom and Rosen, have taken out political ads as recently as late November or early December, after advertisers began pulling out of X over concerns about antisemitic rhetoric on the platform.
Representatives for Tester, Rosen, Fetterman, Brown, Omar, Gallego and Newsom did not return requests for comment. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has taken out over $59,000 in political ads on X, did not return a request for comment.
Spokespeople for X did not return a request for comment on the review. Musk has disputed suggestions that he is an antisemite and publicly lashed out against advertisers withdrawing from the platform.
While dozens of Democrats have used the platform for paid messaging, President Biden’s campaign has not taken out any political ads on X this year, according to the review. Rob Flaherty, a deputy Biden campaign manager, told Politico that they view X “as an increasingly hostile place” that “remains as valuable as the reporters who remain on it let it be.”
In 2019, long before Musk acquired it and renamed the company X, Twitter banned all political advertising on the platform, with CEO Jack Dorsey arguing at the time that “political message reach should be earned, not bought.” The decision came as social media platforms faced mounting scrutiny for at times making money off misleading or false political ads.
Democratic officials including Clinton, the former presidential nominee and secretary of state, and Biden’s 2020 campaign praised Twitter’s ban, citing concerns that platforms such as Facebook were allowing former president Donald Trump’s misleading ads to go unchecked.
But top Republicans, including Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., blasted the prohibition as an assault on free speech.
“Twitter’s ban only further empowers Silicon Valley billionaires, who already have a stronghold on defining what is truthful or acceptable speech,” Cruz wrote in a 2019 op-ed about the move.
The company in January announced plans to reverse the restrictions, saying that “cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics.”
Since taking over, Musk has rolled out a slew of changes at the company in an attempt to boost revenue, including introducing paid subscriptions and reviving political ads. X has received roughly $4.7 million dollars in total from political ads since making the shift, with roughly 200 individuals and groups placing ads, according to the Post’s review.
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