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Musk-Funded Secretive SuperPAC Targeted Women in Swing States With Abortion Ads

The digital campaign misleadingly used Justice Ginsburg’s name to deceive voters

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A secretive SuperPAC engaged in an elaborate scheme to exploit a loophole in federal campaign finance law to hide $20 million in funding from Elon Musk until after the election so it could use Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s name and image in a digital ad campaign to persuade women voters in four swing states to believe that Trump’s and Ginsburg’s opposing positions on abortion, a key issue in the 2024 election, were  “alike.”

A new report titled “Unmasking Musk: Inside the Scheme to Hide Elon Musk’s $20 Million Spending on ‘RBG PAC’ Campaign Ads From Voters Until After The Election” by Public Citizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger unravels the scheme to conceal Musk’s funding of the so-called “RBG PAC” from voters until after the 2024 presidential election. An extensive review of RBG PAC campaign records, digital-ad targeting data, and a web of recently-deleted websites, social media, and video ads revealed a carefully coordinated scheme to maximize RBG PAC’s election impact while depriving voters of information vital to enable them to evaluate the credibility of RBG PAC’s advertising messages.

“Public awareness that Musk was backing RBG PAC would have exposed the cynical agenda behind it, destroyed its credibility as something legitimately associated with Justice Ginsburg, and likely defeated the deceptive purpose of the enterprise,” said Golinger.

“The entire premise of campaign disclosure is that it lets voters know who is funding the ads they are receiving to enable them to consider the funders’ agendas. Instead, this scheme exploited a gaping loophole in federal election disclosure law that enabled the hiding of Musk’s funding of RBG PAC from voters until after they had cast their ballots.”

New data detailed in the “UNMASKING MUSK” report includes:

  • Less than 24 hours after Musk gave $20,500,000 to RBG PAC – its only funding source – RBC PAC spent nearly all of the money on ads, mailers, and text messages. None of the pre-election campaign finance filings or ads reviewed disclosed Musk’s involvement to voters.
  • RBG PAC spent Musk’s money on  
    •  $17.8 million worth of digital ads and 15 and 30 second videos
    • $1 million worth of mailers
    • $1.6 million worth of text messages
  • RBG PAC ran 110 different versions of abortion-themed ads on Facebook and Instagram between October 25 and November 5 (Election Day) that cost more than $1 million and were seen on a screen more than 6.6 million times.
  • RBG PAC ran Facebook and Instagram ads primarily targeting women between the ages of 18 and 54 in four key swing states:  Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.

“The good news is that the Supreme Court has affirmed – and voters have repeatedly voted for – stronger campaign ad disclosure because voters want to know who’s paying for campaign ads so they can make up their own minds about whether to believe them,” said Golinger.  “The elaborately deceptive RBG PAC scheme should motivate Congress, agencies with jurisdiction, and more states to follow Arizona, Alaska, and San Francisco voters’ lead and enact strong campaign disclosure to shine sunlight on dark money.” 

RBG PAC Website Image: