( AFP / ANGELA WEISS, CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)
Progress 2028: Group impersonating Harris backers behind misleading ads
- Published on November 5, 2024 at 21:56
- 8 min read
- By Natalie WADE, AFP USA
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Progress 2028 depicts itself as a liberal counter to "Project 2025," a sweeping set of conservative policy proposals for the United States drafted by The Heritage Foundation that is often linked to Trump despite his attempts to distance himself from the initiative (archived here).
But in the weeks leading up to Election Day, the seemingly pro-Harris group has paid for a series of advertisements that distort the Democratic vice president's policy positions on divisive election flashpoints such as gun control and immigration.
Progress 2028 is a "fictitious name" organization created in September 2024 by the conservative nonprofit Building America's Future a dark money network supporting Trump, according to documents obtained by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in US politics (archived here).
The operation illustrates what researchers describe as a complex web of deception to mislead or alienate voters in a polarizing election race.
The group has been linked to advertisements targeting Arab-Americans in Michigan and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania with contradictory messages about the vice president's stances on Israel and the war in Gaza.
"The initiative is really trying to undermine Harris by spreading divisive messages, misleading narratives under the guise of being an ally of Harris," said Anna Massoglia, from OpenSecrets.
Using a mix of fact and fiction, the site presents some of Harris's policy positions in a way that "Democratic voting blocs might not find favorable," she told AFP.
While some of the claims reflect stances Harris no longer holds, others promote policies she's never supported. AFP took a closer look at several of the claims shared by Progress 2028.
Fracking
"We're beyond thrilled to have Kamala on our side for the ban on fracking! Did you know she wasn't just a supporter of the Green New Deal -- she was the very first 2020 presidential candidate to enthusiastically champion it?" says a Facebook ad that started running on October 25, 2024.
Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, boosted American oil and gas production, initially bringing jobs to the key swing state of Pennsylvania. But the practice also raises environmental and health concerns for communities living alongside the wells, it requires lots of water and has been linked to small earthquakes.
Trump argued a Harris presidency would impose a national ban on fracking and devastate the fossil fuel industry during the only presidential debate between the two candidates September 10.
But Harris says she has no plans to ban the extraction method, despite voicing support for a ban in 2019, and her actions as vice president show she has shifted her position.
"I will not ban fracking, I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States," she said during the debate.
Buyback programs
"We believe that a national buy-back program means fewer guns & fewer tragedies -- and so does Kamala Harris!" says an ad that started running on Oct 25, 2024.
This claim misleads on her 2024 platform.
During Harris's 2019 presidential campaign, she supported a mandatory buyback of assault weapons but she has since changed her position. She now backs banning assault weapons, but not requiring buyback programs.
Democratic campaign officials told the New York Times in July 2024 that the vice president echoed President Joe Biden's "call for banning assault weapons but not a requirement to sell them to the federal government," (archived here).
In a September 19 livestream forum with Oprah Winfrey, Harris further laid out her views on gun policy saying: "I'm in favor of the Second Amendment, and I'm in favor of assault weapons bans, universal background checks, red flag laws."
Immigration and Medicare
"Under Kamala's leadership, undocumented immigrants will no longer be left behind when it comes to critical Medicare access," says an October 22, 2024 Facebook post.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federally funded coverage through Medicare (archived here).
When she ran for president in 2019, Harris indicated she would support a plan that would allow immigrants in the country unlawfully to qualify for health care, but she has not expressed similar views in this campaign (archived here).
She has, however, backed a plan to ensure Dreamers -- undocumented immigrants who arrived as children -- have access to affordable health care (archived here), and called for a path to citizenship for these individuals.
Other US fact-checking organizations reported that her 2024 campaign has not said she supports free, taxpayer-supported health coverage for undocumented immigrants.
Non-citizen voting
"The Biden-Harris DOJ successfully challenged Virginia's 'non-citizen' voter removal program and won! This ensures that no undocumented immigrant is unjustly stripped from voter rolls," says an October 26, 2024 Facebook post.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to vote and Harris has not proposed to allow non-citizen voting in federal elections.
On August 7, three months before Election Day, Virginia's Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order to speed up the process of removing voters from the rolls who were flagged as possible non-citizens in state databases (archived here).
The Justice Department and civil rights groups alleged that US citizens were being caught up in the purge and the lower courts initially halted the order.
However, less than a week before Election Day, the Supreme Court ruled for Virginia Republicans, allowing the Republican-led state to remove about 1,600 people from voter rolls.
The Harris-Walz campaign said in a statement that "every eligible voter has a right to cast their ballot and have their vote counted, and this ruling does not change that. Voting by non-citizens remains illegal under federal law."
The Democratic campaign noted that Virginia has same-day registration and said: "Anyone improperly kicked off the voter rolls can reregister and vote that day."
Parental rights
"Kamala Harris will champion the right for minors to access the care they need without fear of parental intervention or discrimination," a Facebook ad running since October 25, 2024 said.
AFP found no evidence Harris has proposed children be permitted to access gender-affirming care without parental knowledge or involvement.
The Democrat supports access to gender-affirming care, but this was discussed in the context of adults, for whom she said such decisions should be left to doctors and their patients.
Republicans have repeatedly accused Democrats of threatening parental rights around gender-related issues, but such claims often misinterpret specific state laws -- which are not tied to the Harris campaign.
AFP has fact-checked several such claims here, here and here.
According to Planned Parenthood, parental consent is needed for any form of gender-affirming care given to minors, including puberty blockers or hormone therapy (archived here).
Ads comply with rules
"Drop a comment to thank Kamala," the Progress 2028 ads say -- possibly confusing viewers about who is behind the message, despite fine print explaining the posts are "not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee."
Meta said the group's ads do not meet the standard for removal under its inauthentic behavior policy.
Ryan Daniels, a Meta spokesperson told AFP: "By adding a disclosure label and making ads publicly available in our Ad Library, Meta brings a level of transparency to political advertising that far exceeds that of any other platform where these ads have run."
Daniels added that "this type of political advertising isn't new and has been found across the media landscape for decades."
AFP reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but a response was not forthcoming.
More of AFP's reporting on misinformation about the 2024 election can be found here.
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