Koch-linked group launches 'more weed, less war' campaign in North Carolina


The American Future Fund is behind a $225,000 (and counting) ad buy in North Carolina to support Libertarian Senate candidate Sean Haugh. Though Haugh is a long shot with just 6 percent support in the latest poll, these ads have garnered significant attention, as they feature hyper-enthusiastic millennials announcing that Haugh's "progressive values" in support of "more weed, less war" should attract young people more than the race's Democratic frontrunner, Kay Hagan.
What's the Koch link? While Team Koch says it has no involvement in this particular initiative, the Koch brothers have a real history with American Future Fund. "In the 2012 campaign, [American Future Fund] was a major player in a network of politically active nonprofits supported by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and other conservative donors," says The Washington Post.
A pizza delivery man, Haugh has spent less than $8,000 on his own campaign. He says he was not aware of the ads before they launched. Though he is thankful they represent his positions on ending the drug war and overseas interventions accurately, he also recognizes that the ads are likely an attempt to spoil the race for Hagan by siphoning off young liberal voters.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
'The arts are not just expressions of creativity'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
June 26 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Thursday's cartoons include a White House misspelling, a heatwave in the northern hemisphere, and a ticking clock for climate change
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from
-
Judges order release of 2 high-profile migrants
Speed Read Kilmar Ábrego García is back in the US and Mahmoud Khalil is allowed to go home — for now
-
US assessing bomb damage to Iran nuclear sites
Speed Read Trump claims this weekend's US bombing obliterated Tehran's nuclear program, while JD Vance insists the US is 'not at war with Iran'
-
Trump's LA deployment in limbo after court rulings
Speed Read Judge Breyer ruled that Trump's National Guard deployment to Los Angeles was an 'illegal' overreach. But a federal appellate court halted the ruling.
-
Marines, National Guard in LA can detain Americans
speed read The troops have been authorized to detain anyone who interferes with immigration raids