Democratic Consultants Deceived Donors, Spent Nothing on Promised Voter Turnout
Mothership Strategies exploited liberal concerns around abortion, guns, voting rights, and other hot button issues to vacuum up millions in donations.
Democratic donors were spammed by text yesterday to donate to a political action committee called “Pro-Choice Majority 2024” throughout the election. The urgent demand for donations continued even moments before polls closed.
”Kamala SINKING in Pennsylvania: 46% - 48% We need your help!!! RUSH $20 TO DEFEAT DONALD TRUMP NOW! go.prochoicedems.io/1105b4”
The landing page takes potential donors to even more extreme appeals:
”If we can't raise $20,000 to Pro-Choice Majority before polls close in just HOURS, we may as well hand Trump a victory and he'll END reproductive freedoms FOREVER.”
”So our generous donors UNLOCKED a 400%-MATCH on all donations to Pro-Choice Majority to help DEFEAT Trump & SAVE reproductive rights!”
The alarmist messages puzzled at least one recipient, who forwarded the fundraising demands. How could this PAC use money to defeat Trump on Election Day when voting was virtually over?
Pro-Choice Majority 2024’s website urges donations but provides no information on its leadership or origins or even a landing page with how to contact the group.
The donation demands to tip the balance of the presidential race appear to have been a bait and switch to fool donors. Pro-Choice Majority 2024, formed in January of this year, raised over $3.6 million yet spent most of its funds on a group of consultants and fundraisers. Federal Election Commission records show that the group spent zero dollars on independent expenditures opposing Trump or supporting the Harris campaign. The group did not make any transfers to the Harris campaign, either.
Instead, much of the group's funds flowed to Mothership Strategies, a D.C. firm founded in 2015 by former Democratic Party staffers.
FEC records show that Mothership Strategies, which has been scrutinized in the past for its aggressive fundraising tactics, has collected at least $48,712,448 over the last two years from advising an extensive array of Democratic PACs. That total does not include the money spent over the last few weeks given the FEC’s quarterly disclosure schedule. It is likely to be much higher. Many of the PACs tied to Mothership Strategies similarly used alarmist messages demanding donations to defeat Trump yet funneled vast sums of donor money back to consulting firms.
Pro-Choice Majority 2024, for instance, provided nearly half a million dollars to Mothership Strategies. Stop Gun Violence PAC, another group with alarmist messaging—a sample pitch from the group urges donors to sign a petition and contribute in order “to BAN Trump from running for office”—raised just under one million dollars. Over two-thirds of Stop Gun Violence PAC’s fundraising went to consultants, the largest of which was Mothership Strategies.
Defend the Vote PAC is another example. The group uses hyperbolic language for donation drives. One appeal from the group urged supporters to sign a request “to demand Congress invoke the 14th Amendment to BAN Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress.” The organization raised at least $5.6 million. Records show that $3.7 million of the funds went to consultants and lawyers, with about $2 million of that slice of the funds going to Mothership Strategies.