This Kamala Harris campaign ad looks like an attempt to scam Beto supporters

(Image credit: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

published 15 March 2019

Beto O'Rourke is sparking a whole new kind of attack ad.

After the former Texas Senate candidate joined a swelling field of 2020 contenders Thursday, fellow Democrats, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), used his name in fundraising emails to drive their own campaigns. But Harris seemingly took her strategizing a sneaky step further, Logan Dobson, who works for Republican strategy firm Targeted Victory, documented in a series of tweets.

Dobson does note that it's "super common" to run search ads on opponents' names, like how Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's website pops up before Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y) when Googling her. But those ads don't usually resemble that opponents' branding. Still, looking at O'Rourke's actual fundraising page side-by-side with Harris', it's easy to see major differences.

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As of 1 p.m. EST on Friday, Harris' ads didn't appear when searching "Beto for America" on Google anymore, but the page is still up on her website.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.