Polluters, climate advocates clash ahead of next week's Virginia primaries
Dominion Energy's new shell group spends big on digital ads
On Tuesday, June 8th, Democrats in Virginia will head to the polls to select their nominees for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General, in addition to key House of Delegate races across the Commonwealth.
While Virginian’s newsfeeds are already filled with advertising from the candidates themselves, outside groups have quietly begun spending heavily online to endorse or oppose their chosen candidates and influence voters.
One of the most notable advertisers on Facebook is the opaquely-branded “Power for Tomorrow, which was the 8th highest spender on Facebook in Virginia this week. The organization is relatively new, with its page being created on March 17th and running its first ads in mid-April. Since their launch, they have spent a whopping $104,297 on Facebook advertising alone.
Despite portraying itself as a national organization on its website, the organization has run Facebook ads exclusively targeting Virginia. Moreover, their ads have explicitly attacked the progressive environmental group Clean Virginia, which advocates for greater regulation of energy monopoly Dominion Energy (which is also the top political donor in Virginia). The group seems to be draping itself in progressive language, but it turns out it is a vehicle for Dominion to fix its reputation among progressive Virginians.
Speaking of Clean Virginia, the group has been actively spending on social media ads on behalf of their endorsed statewide candidates. Specifically, the group is targeting young voters on Snapchat in support of Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy for Governor and Del. Jay Jones for Attorney General. The group has spent around $40,000 on Facebook ads in the past 90 days, and a few thousand bucks on Snapchat. Here’s some of what they’re running on Snapchat:
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