Super PAC funding ads against swing district Democrats may be tied to Elon Musk

A political action committee with links to PACs funded by billionaire Elon Musk is targeting two Democratic congressional candidates in crucial swing districts. The unaffiliated super PAC, called We Decide PAC, is running digital ads attacking Laura Gillen and Mondaire Jones, who are challenging vulnerable Republican incumbents. The ads call Gillen and Jones “bad for Jewish Americans,” accuse them of being insufficiently supportive of Israel and link them to George Soros. 

We Decide PAC is registered to the same P.O. box in Austin as some of Musk’s other PACs and it shares a treasurer with another group, Future Coalition PAC, that The New York Times previously reported was secretly funded by Musk. The PAC also appears to have violated federal campaign law, perhaps inadvertently, by falsely listing Vice President Kamala herself as its treasurer in at least two expenditure reports.

The ads themselves appear to be the work of a longtime GOP digital strategist who last made headlines for working on campaigns for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for far-right parties in France and Germany.

The super PAC

We Decide PAC was created on August 30 and is registered to a P.O. box in Austin, Texas, used by Rightside Compliance, which is run by Republican campaign finance lawyer Chris Gober of The Gober Group. Emails listed on We Decide PAC’s filings also go to both The Gober Group and Rightside Compliance. 

That same P.O. box is used by several Musk-funded PACs: America PAC, Future Coalition PAC and Duty to America PAC. It’s also used by Building America’s Future, a dark-money group that The Wall Street Journal reported is used as a conduit by Musk to secretly fund other PACs.

We Decide PAC also shares a treasurer and a bank with the Future Coalition PAC, which ran digital ads in Michigan targeting Doug Emhoff that some critics dubbed antisemitic. Those ads, targeted to Arab American and Muslim voters in Michigan, touted Harris and Emhoff’s support of Israel. The New York Times reported last month that Musk was funding Future Coalition PAC through Building America’s Future. 

Requests for comment to the treasurer and law firm were not returned.

In New York, America PAC – Musk’s main PAC – has spent a combined $1.7 million to support Lawler and oppose Jones in the race for the 17th Congressional District, according to data compiled on OpenSecrets.

We Decide PAC began running Facebook ads in New York on Oct. 24. The ads target both Gillen, who is running in a close race against Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito in the 4th Congressional District on Long Island, and Jones, who is challenging Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in the 17th Congressional District in the Hudson Valley. The PAC also lists spending against progressive Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar, along with Vice President Kamala Harris.

One odd detail in the PAC’s Federal Election Committee filings is that Vice President Harris herself was falsely listed as the PAC’s treasurer on two expenditures filed on Oct. 31. One of the filings was corrected later that day, though the other remained signed by “Kamala Harris” as of press time.

“That’s illegal misrepresentation under several felony laws,” New York election law attorney Paul Newell told City & State. “Of course they can argue it was a harmless error rather than a prank or done with the intent to mislead.”

Only one donation to the PAC has been disclosed so far. On Sept. 17, the PAC received a $25,000 contribution from Clay Hamlin III, a Pennsylvania-based partner in a large commercial real estate firm. Any donations to the PAC made after Sept. 30 won’t be publicly disclosed until after the election.

We Decide PAC reported several payments to a company called Harris Media LLC in Miami for “digital political ads development and placement,” “media development and production services” and digital ad buys and video production. Harris Media’s website currently lists three offices, in Austin, Miami and Tel Aviv. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Harris Media is run by Vincent Harris, a longtime Texas GOP operative and digital strategist based in Austin whom Bloomberg News once dubbed “the man who invented the Republican internet.” Harris is known for his work with conservative candidates overseas. In 2015, he did digital work for the Likud Party in Israel, where he helped Netanyahu get elected. After a brief stint on Trump’s 2016 campaign, Harris was hired by Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party and he later worked for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front in France.

The ads

“Gillen puts Jewish-Americans at risk,” warns the narrator of a 29-second video on a YouTube channel called “Kamalas [sic] Jewish Record,” paid for by We Decide PAC. The video opens by stating that “Kamala Harris and Laura Gillen are bad for Israel and bad for Jewish Americans,” and references a member of Gillen’s former transition team who criticized Israel, which has become a common conservative line of attack against Gillen.

An unlisted ad on the same YouTube channel targeting former Rep. Mondaire Jones claims that Jones “joined the anti-Israel Squad” while in Congress, and a banner on the video states: “Jewish voters cannot risk Mondaire Jones.”

The anti-Gillen and Jones ads can be found on a Meta Ad Library page for an advertiser called “We Decide” with the same logo used on the YouTube channel and on a website also paid for by the PAC. The ads ran for a week on Facebook as part of a $53,711 ad buy, according to Meta.

One Meta banner ad from We Decide PAC shows Gillen and reads “bankrolled by the Soros family who also fund anti-Israel and antisemitic organizations.” Other ads visually pair Gillen and Jones with Kamala Harris, with a link to the group’s website reading “Learn the truth.”

One veteran political operative who has long worked with Nassau Republican campaigns thinks the PAC’s ads are money well spent. “Money spent by outside PACs like We Decide to defeat extreme liberals like Laura Gillen and Mondaire Jones is well invested,” Matthew Coleman said. “As a Jewish voter, I understand that turnout is strong but New Yorkers also see through these challengers’ lies.”

Gillen told City & State that the digital ad’s characterization of her as anti-Israel is false. “I have been clear and consistent in my position (that) the United States must stand in solidarity with Israel in its defense against all its enemies, including Iran, and support its total victory over Hamas. In Congress, I will continue to support Israel,” she said.

A spokesperson for Jones also objected to the ads’ claims that he was anti-Israel. 

“Once again, MAGA Republicans and Elon Musk's super PAC, which has been bankrolling Mike Lawler's campaign, are lying about Mondaire's record,” said Shannon Geison, a spokesperson for Jones’ campaign.“Mondaire never voted against funding for Iron Dome. He voted for every appropriations bill containing aid to Israel, including a standalone supplemental aid bill for Iron Dome.”

“Mike Lawler, by contrast, voted to defund aid to Israel by nearly $1 billion in the days leading up to the October 7th terror attacks. He also continues to endorse antisemites for public office. That’s shameful,” Geison added.

A spokesperson for Lawler asked to view the ads but then did not comment further.

In addition to the digital ads, We Decide PAC sent out mailers attacking Kamala Harris’ stance on Israel. On Oct. 30, Long Island resident Shoshana Hershkowitz posted on X that she “received this racist and Islamphobic mailer targeting Jewish voters.” 

The mailer listed “top reasons Kamala Harris poses a threat to Israel and Jewish safety worldwide.” Those reasons included Harris supporting “BLM and progressive causes” and “Harris/Biden’s open borders Allow Antisemites and Terrorists to Flood Into the Country.”

“I know quite a few people who are Jewish or have Jewish-sounding names who received it” on Long Island, Hershkowitz told City & State.