Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, apparently has used public dozens to train dozens of influencers on how best to convince their followers to vote in next month’s election.
The Daily Caller News Foundation filed an open records request and received documents that show the plan Shapiro undertook with many social media influencers who are overwhelmingly liberal.
The documents show that, on July 25, Pennsylvania paid thousands of dollars to host what it called a “Democracy Summer Camp,” a day-long program that instructed people who have large followings on social media on how they can influence their followers to vote, and how also to spot “misinformation” online.
The DCNF obtained a document that outlined a list of 43 different influencers that Shapiro’s office invited to attend the training, which was funded using public money.
A review of those influencers on the list showed that none of them favor Republicans, while about 70% of them had a presence on social media that is “explicitly liberal.”
The remaining influencers who ended up going to the event had accounts that were apolitical. However, they belonged to demographics that favor Democrats overwhelmingly, such as African Americans and college students.
In a recording of the day-long training, Shapiro can be heard telling the crowd:
“We all need to get off the sidelines, get in the game, and fight for what we believe in. Stand up strong and proud for the values we hold dear.”
The DNCF reported that the documents also show that Al Schmidt, the secretary of the commonwealth, gave the influencers information about voting laws.
Gavin Lichtenstein, the director of digital partnerships for Shapiro’s office, told those in attendance that users on social media platforms would be looking their way for information about election-related topics such as voting deadlines and locations of drop boxes.
Seth Grove, a state representative in Pennsylvania, spoke to the DCNF about the report and commented:
“Having the governor’s office use taxpayer funds to only have Democrat social media influencers … is very, very sketchy and was a waste of taxpayer dollars. That was a cost to the taxpayers to do campaign work. I don’t believe for a second they had any interest in inviting Republicans. … It was lopsided and targeted to Democratic influencers.”
Maggie McGregor was one of the influencers who attended the event. She just so happens to be the daughter of Virginia McGregor, who serves as the treasurer for the Democratic National Committee.
On September 24, she posted a message to her followers online that read:
“The election of the United States of America is about eight weeks from today and I am not sitting on the sidelines. As you can see, I am endorsing Kamala Harris.”
She then encouraged people to create a “voting plan” so they can try to change the minds of people regarding who they might vote for in November’s election.
