Political advertising’s new rising star: Trump’s cost-cutter in chief Elon Musk
CNN
Elon Musk is emerging as a new star in Democratic ads and fundraising appeals, as politicians from Virginia to Wisconsin try to seize on the tech billionaire’s role in slashing the federal government to motivate their voters and donors.
Elon Musk is emerging as a new star in Democratic ads and fundraising appeals, as politicians from Virginia to Wisconsin try to seize on the tech billionaire’s role in slashing the federal government to motivate their voters and donors. A leading Democratic outside group recently launched ads in nearly two dozen House races that seek to paint vulnerable GOP incumbents as willing to cut spending on health care for children and the elderly to benefit billionaires such as Musk. The ads from House Majority Forward show images of Musk wielding the chainsaw that he held aloft last month during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference as he celebrated pursuing steep spending cuts through the Department of Government Efficiency. The Tesla CEO also has a starring role in a digital ad campaign from the Virginia House Democratic Caucus that seeks to expand the party’s narrow majority in the state House of Delegates. And he’s featured in new commercials that back the liberal candidate running for an open judicial seat in Wisconsin in an election that could change the ideological balance of the state’s Supreme Court. The advertising blitz tests whether Musk – whom Forbes pegs as the world’s richest person – will prove a political liability for Republicans as he continues to take a leading role in chopping the federal workforce and shuttering parts of the government. “He makes for a very convenient boogeyman,” said Lynda Tran, a Democratic strategist and former Biden administration official. “He’s driving the vast majority of headlines right now. Whether you want to or not, his name is on your lips because he’s taking up so much of the oxygen in the room.” Recent polling suggests that Musk is an unpopular messenger for the administration’s cost-cutting moves – particularly among the Democratic voters that the party needs to turn out in off-year elections in places such as Virginia. The governor’s seat and state legislative contests are on the ballot in the Commonwealth this year, and elected officials there are grappling with the fallout of DOGE-driven cuts to the state’s sizable federal workforce.
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