“KS women are losing their choice over reproductive rights,” the text warns. “Voting YES to the Amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect women’s health.
The unsigned the messages were described as misleading by many recipients, including former Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who also served as health and human services secretary in the Obama administration. She told the Washington Post that she was “stunned to receive the message, which clearly showed that there was a very specific effort to use carefully crafted language to confuse people before they go to vote.”
The scheme was all the more alarming to abortion rights advocates and watchdogs as its source was unknown.
But the messages were crafted by a political action committee headed by Tim Huelskamp, a hard-line Republican former congressman from Kansas, and enabled by a fast-growing, Republican-aligned tech company, people familiar with say. of the record who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the publicity blitz. The people and groups behind the campaign have not been previously reported.
The messages were sent from phone numbers that had been leased by Sparks, Nevada-based Alliance Forge. Founded in 2021, Alliance Forge describes itself as “the nation’s fastest growing political technology company, proudly serving federal, state and local campaigns across the nation.”
The numbers were leased by Alliance Forge from Twilio, a San Francisco-based communications company. The numbers were turned off Monday night, according to a Twilio spokesperson, Cris Paden, who said the account that rented them was in violation of company policies prohibiting the “spreading of misinformation”.
In a statement, Alliance Forge chief executive David Espinosa said, “Alliance Forge has not consulted on the messaging strategy or content of this message.” He said the company was notified Monday night of a “possible content breach” and “immediately began working with the Twilio team to identify the source and nature of the content.”
The Alliance Forge client that sent the messages was Make the right CAPchaired by Huelskamp, who served in Congress between 2011 and 2017. The PAC raised more than $532,000 and spent more than $203,000 in support of the amendment, according to a deposit last month. Huelskamp did not respond to calls and a text message seeking comment.
The Kansas Government Ethics Commission said Monday that, “Under current law, SMS outreach about constitutional vote initiatives does not require paid disclaimers.”
This election cycle, Alliance Forge has been paid more than $60,000 by federal campaigns alone, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission. His clients include Adam Laxalt, Republican candidate for the US Senate in Nevada, and a committee associated with Kathy Barnette, political commentator and unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for the US Senate in Pennsylvania. Alliance Forge provided text messaging services for both, according to filings.
Text messages sent on Monday did not mention Alliance Forge or its client, leaving no clear way for people who received the messages to say who was looking. to push them in favor of the “yes”.
This effort offered further proof of the power of texting in political campaigning, as well as the covert style of communication made possible by the platform. Two days after the 2020 election, a Republican company led by then-President Donald Trump’s top campaign official helped to send Unsigned Text messages that urged Philadelphia supporters to converge outside a building where local election officials were counting votes. He yelled, “ALERT: Radical Liberals and Democrats are trying to steal this election from Trump!”
Reports filed with the Kansas Ethics Commission illustrate strong interest in the Tuesday’s referendum resultthe first big vote on abortion since Roe vs. Wade was reversed in June. Opposing camps spent $11.2 million this year, with the Catholic Church and its affiliates spending $3.4 million. in support of the amendment it could give lawmakers the ability to impose new abortion restrictions and the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood spending $382,000 and $1.3 million, respectively, to oppose it.
Espinosa, an information technology specialist, is one of the co-founders of Alliance Forge. The others are Michael Clement, a Republican agent whose LinkedIn profile says he managed Rep. Burgess Owens’ (R-Utah) 2020 campaign, and Greg Bailor, former Republican National Committee State Director and Republican Party Executive Director of the Nevada.