Rep. Elissa Slotkin speaks at the 2024 DNC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.) will need all the help she can get to clinch victory in her competitive race for Michigan’s open Senate seat in November. But there’s one portion of the electorate she doesn’t want many of her Facebook advertisements to reach: anyone interested in "Jewish Studies."
Slotkin excluded users interested in "Jewish Studies" from viewing at least 12 Facebook advertisements her campaign has run on the platform in the past 90 days, according to microtargeting data from the Facebook ad library reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. During the same time frame, the Slotkin campaign instructed Facebook to target 12 of her ads to users interested in "Islamic studies," "Middle-Eastern studies," and "Al Jazeera," a Qatar-based news outlet that has been described by an Israeli court as a "propaganda arm" for Hamas.
The Slotkin campaign targeted another three Facebook ads to users with an expressed interest in the "State of Palestine," and "Gaza Strip," the ad library shows.
Slotkin’s move to exclude those interested in Jewish studies from viewing her Facebook ads while at the same time targeting apparent supporters of the Palestinians offers a behind-the-scenes view on how her campaign is catering to Michigan’s large Muslim and Arab-American population. Slotkin has faced criticism throughout her campaign over her reaction to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist rampage in Israel. She came under fire in April for her "weak response" to a pro-Hamas rally in Dearborn where protesters chanted "death to America" and "death to Israel." Earlier, in February, Slotkin called for a ceasefire in the conflict, bending to pressure from a delegation of Michigan protesters that had descended upon Washington, D.C., in January urging her to support a suspension of hostilities.
It’s not clear which of those ads are the 12 that Slotkin didn’t want users interested in "Jewish Studies" to see, or if they were the same 12 she targeted for delivery to fans of "Al Jazeera" and users interested in "Islamic studies," or the three ads she targeted to users with expressed interest in the "Gaza Strip" and "Palestine."
The Slotkin campaign also excluded users interested in "Catholic High School," "Kid Rock," "Fox News," "Trucking," "Homeland Security," "Petroleum," and "United States Border Patrol" from receiving upwards of 30 of her campaign ads posted on Facebook in the past 90 days.
The Slotkin campaign did not return a request for comment.
Recent public polling shows Slotkin with a slight lead over her Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Rogers, but internal campaign polls reported by the New York Times in July indicated the race was a dead heat.
"Right now, President Biden is behind Trump in all of our polling and this Senate race is in a dead heat," Slotkin told donors during a private conference call leaked to the Times.
Slotkin isn’t the only Democrat under fire for the manner in which microtargeting Facebook ads.
The Voter Participation Center, a self-described "non-partisan" charity run by a veteran Democratic activist that claims to have registered more than six million people to vote since its inception in 2003, has instructed Facebook to exclude from the reach of its ads anyone with expressed interests in NASCAR, golf, Jeeps, and a variety of other hobbies typically associated with Republican men, the Free Beacon reported.
Following that report, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) on Wednesday demanded the IRS investigate the Voter Participation Center for appearing to sidestep federal tax laws that require charities to conduct voter registration activities in a neutral and nonpartisan manner.
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