(Photo by nrkbeta; from Flickr)
A Florida Democratic consultant has pulled down an online ad for two Florida congressional candidates featuring New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after being criticized for using it without her permission.
Jackson McMillan said March 16 that “out of an abundance of caution,” he would withdraw the ad, although he defended its use.
The ad touted the candidacies of Democrats running in special congressional elections on April 1 — Gay Valimont in the 1st Congressional District and Josh Weil in the 6th District. Both are prohibitive underdogs in those red districts.
On Saturday, AOC said on X that footage taken from a 92-minute Instagram Live presentation she gave on Feb. 3 for an ad boosting Valimont and Weil was being used without her consent.
That prompted Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg, who emerged as a national advocate for gun safety as a co-founder of the group March for Our Lives following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, to chime in, claiming that McMillan had done the same thing to him.
“The campaign hasn’t been approving this type of content — it’s this consultant who’s running this without anyone’s consent,” Hogg wrote on X.
“People like Jackson McMillan are the exact type of consultants who people say are the problem in our party. I’m done dealing with these a— and it’s time they start being called out. Everyone says f— the consultants but won’t name names. Jackson is one of many.” [Elisions by the Phoenix.]
Contacted Sunday night, McMillan sent this comment to the Phoenix.
“We are excited that the congresswoman and Mr. Hogg have indicated the importance of these critical elections in Florida on their personal social media,” he wrote. “We utilized that content, not unlike a public news segment, in ads that highlight the importance of the campaign. Out of an abundance of caution, the ads have been removed.”
This story is courtesy of Florida Phoenix.
Florida Phoenix is a nonprofit news site, free of advertising and free to readers, covering state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
