“Kamala Harris supports endless wars in the Middle East,” reads a mailer sent to households in Michigan the day before Election Day, ostensibly imploring voters to support Green Party candidate Jill Stein instead.
“I am reaching out to make sure that you know Kamala will always stand with Israel,” reads an apparent pro-Harris text sent to several pro-Palestinian voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania around the same time.
While one message appeared to be anti-Harris and the other to support her, the mailer and the text messages had a secret in common. They were not backed by the Stein or Harris campaigns, but by Republican-aligned PACs trying to dampen enthusiasm for Harris in key swing states.
And they demonstrated how, even down to the wire, conservative campaigners have sought to exploit deep Democratic divisions about the Israel-Hamas war — and the Harris campaign’s own vulnerabilities on the issue — in order to tip the scales to Donald Trump.
The latest messaging followed similar efforts mounted by an Elon Musk-affiliated PAC in Michigan and Pennsylvania. In heavily Arab-American areas of Michigan, where disfavor with Biden’s handling with the war is at its highest, purportedly pro-Israel billboards have for weeks trumpeted Harris’s commitment to Israel and featured her Jewish husband Doug Emhoff; online ads with the same message have also targeted these constituencies. Meanwhile, the same PAC has also funded mailers sent to Jewish households in Pennsylvania declaring that Harris not pro-Israel enough.
A billboard designed to look like a pro-Israel ad for Vice President Kamala Harris and Jewish Democratic Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin is part of an ad blitz led by a Republican PAC with ties to Elon Musk, in Dearborn, Michigan, Oct. 13, 2024. The goal of the ad is to discourage Arab and Muslim voters from supporting Harris. (Courtesy of Levi Smith)
The latest efforts came from different sources. The “Stein” mailers — which include a photo of Gaza devastation, a photo of Harris shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a declaration that “Jill Stein is the clear choice for peace” — are funded by Badger Values PAC, a Houston-based group that has reported more than $1.5 million in pro-Stein and pro-Trump ad spending. Stein herself has been vocal about declaring the Gaza war a “genocide” and has peeled support from Michigan’s Arab-American voting bloc.
The text messages, meanwhile, are secretly backed by Wonder Cave, a North Carolina-based vendor that collaborates with Republican consultants, tech publication The Verge reported. Unlike the Stein mailers, which list their funding source, the texts appear to have been sent anonymously.
According to screenshots, the texts pose as pro-Israel Harris supporters with names like “Avi,” sending news articles and other items trumpeting her Israel ties to reluctant Harris voters who ask not to see them.
“Regardless of what you think, it’s clear what Kamala Harris wants — that’s a strong Israel,” one text reads. The sender included links to stories in the Times of Israel and NBC News highlighting her Israel ties.
One voter taken in by the ads was University of Pittsburgh professor and pro-Palestinian activist Kumars Salehi, who reposted screenshots of the texts.
Salehi, who described himself to The Verge as a “pragmatic” Harris voter, initially thought the texts were genuinely sent by the Harris camp. “Kamala people have been texting me all weekend to make sure I know how much she hates Palestinians,” he wrote on X. “Behold, the Democrats’ final push to win Pennsylvania.”
He later acknowledged that he had been tricked, saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, they got me. I apologize for contributing to election misinformation.”
Another pro-Palestinian voter in Michigan told The Verge he had been receiving similar texts “at least once a day” since Oct. 24. Michigan is also the home of the Uncommitted protest movement, founded during the primaries to pressure Biden on Israel. While the group officially ended the election season with a plea not to elect Trump but without endorsing Harris, some people associated with the movement have publicly endorsed her in the waning days of the close race.
While both candidates have pledged to end the war in Gaza if elected, Harris has frequently been caught between her party’s pro-Israel stalwarts and the growing movement on the left to take stronger action against Israel. Actual Harris events and literature aimed at Jewish voters in the same swing states have also emphasized that she is committed to Israel, as have materials sent by liberal pro-Israel groups like Zioness Action Fund.