Sade, a self-described mother of three from Michigan, posted a video to Instagram and TikTok earlier this July, expressing a popular sentiment: It was getting harder to make ends meet, as the costs of gas, rent, groceries and other expenses were too high in the state, and wages weren’t keeping up.
“Make it make sense,” the woman posting as sades.journey told her few dozen followers.
That language, “Make it make sense,” was a popular refrain, appearing in more than a dozen other recent videos viewed by MS NOW. In them, small-time creators (mostly women) posted selfies with white overlaid type, bemoaning Michigan’s cost of living. The accounts — all created this year — also posted about other topics of concern, like holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement “accountable” and standing up to President Donald Trump. At about the same time this July, the accounts seemed to settle on a solution for their troubles. As Sade put it, “That’s why I’m looking at Haley Stevens.”
The race to fill Michigan’s open Senate seat narrowed this month to a two-way Democratic primary between Rep. Haley Stevens and physician and former county health director Abdul El-Sayed. Backed by the Democrats’ progressive wing, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., El-Sayed’s campaign has outraised Stevens, an establishment candidate who has been endorsed by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and, on Friday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But outside groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its affiliates, have poured $50 million into the race to boost Stevens. The primary election is on Aug. 4.
These seemingly coordinated social media posts from purported Michiganders with names that include periods and phrases like “rants with” or “yaps” are meant to boost Stevens too. And they echo the language of a paid influencer campaign for an unspecified candidate that one influencer who was approached for the job shared with MS NOW. But unlike the TV ads currently blanketing the state, which carry the names of the groups that paid for them, the posts of the influencer campaign do not disclose any potential funders — or even whether they are ads.
“Our campaign is not aware of or involved with this effort,” Arik Wolk, a spokesman for the Stevens campaign, texted to MS NOW.
In a statement, Roxie Richner, an El-Sayed campaign spokesperson, criticized the Stevens campaign for relying on dark money. “Abdul has pulled in tens of millions of organic views and impressions across platforms,” she said. “We’re proud to have built a base of organic creator support without spending a single dime, and look forward to using it to ensure Democrats hold this seat in November.”
Secret influencer campaigns have been a hallmark of this election cycle. In California, creators were paid to post favorably about Tom Steyer’s gubernatorial campaign — some with disclosures, others without, drawing a state ethics complaint. In Illinois, a dark money group paid influencers to attack congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh in the final days before her primary. Democratic donors have poured tens of millions into building creator networks, including efforts like Project Bullhorn and Chorus, that operate largely without transparency.
And though campaign finance experts and democracy groups have criticized the lack of transparency across the political spectrum, lamenting dark money groups’ use of shadowy advertising campaigns, no state or federal guidelines require such transparency. Unlike a content creator advertising an actual product online, where the Federal Trade Commission could require them to be upfront about endorsements, no Federal Election Commission rule compels creators to say that a political group is paying them to post. A few states, including California, have recently tried to close the gap, but with little accountability baked in.
That’s what Kendall Boyle was told when someone from Activate HQ, a social media influencer marketing agency, reached out to her last month with an opportunity. The rep offered to pay Boyle for two videos posted to her TikTok, where she has 18,000 followers, about “how rising costs are affecting Michigan residents in real life.” The brief didn’t mention Stevens, but asked creators to “outline how Washington leadership is responsible,” according to emails Boyle shared with MS NOW.
When Boyle asked who would be paying her, she was told the campaign was sponsored by Majority Forward, the dark money nonprofit arm of Senate Majority PAC, the main super PAC that funds Democratic Senate races. The email described Majority Forward as “actively working to get Democrats elected,” but, the agency wrote, the funding organization would not be mentioned anywhere in the post because the campaign “falls under FEC guidelines, rather than FTC.”
A spokesperson with Senate Majority PAC told MS NOW that neither it nor its nonprofit, Majority Forward, had worked with the pro-Stevens micro-influencers and said Activate HQ’s description of the PAC’s nonprofit to Boyle was “inaccurate.”
“Majority Forward’s work in Michigan focuses solely on affordability,” the spokesperson said, and “in accordance with federal campaign laws, does not engage in political work.”
Activate HQ did not return MS NOW’s requests for comment.
Boyle declined the offer over email, saying it “would feel inauthentic to my platform to be involved in a campaign supported by a dark money PAC.”
But within days, Boyle began to see posts that matched the brief she was offered out in the wild, on her Instagram feed. “Groceries. Clothing. Electronics. Cars. Rent. Everyday essentials are costing more, driven by inflation and new tariffs,” the pitch had read — and soon her algorithm fed her accounts hitting those same notes and “calling out Washington leadership.” Before long, they were mentioning Stevens by name and, this week, explicitly praising the candidate.
“Haley Stevens has my vote all the way,” one creator in the network posted this week.
“Now they are just full-blown Haley Stevens ads,” Boyle said of the posts, which she has been chronicling on her TikTok account.
MS NOW reached out to 13 accounts posting pro-Stevens content in this mold; most did not respond. Using reverse-image searches, MS NOW identified the creators behind three of those accounts, all of whom promote other products or services on separate accounts. One of these is Sade, who also posts about an app for potential class-action litigants; another is ashley.the.activist, who promotes an artificial intelligence app she uses in her work “as a realtor.” (Neither responded to requests for interviews.) A pro-Stevens creator who spoke with MS NOW on the condition that her name not be included is a web designer in South Carolina. She told MS NOW she found the campaign on Sideshift, an app that offers user-generated content gigs, and earned about $400 for 30 posts.
During his failed gubernatorial run in California, Steyer’s campaign reportedly used Sideshift to pay influencers $10 per video, with instructions to keep posts “casual” but not mention the candidate directly.
A current campaign on Sideshift viewed by MS NOW is offering content creators $1,500 a month ($30 a video, plus bonuses) to post about “the rising crisis of affordability … ahead of the 2026 midterms.” It’s unclear whether this project is associated with the current pro-Stevens campaign.
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