Why Is a Dem-Aligned Political Shop Making RFK Jr. Ads?

The two ads are ordinary election-year fare. One promotes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who until last Friday was running as an independent, “because you deserve better than the same old thing.” The other cautions against Kennedy, warning he is “the most dangerous man in American politics.”

What’s unusual is that both ads were made by the same shop. Even stranger: They are the work of a Democratic Party-aligned political advertising boutique.

Why would Three Point Media, which pitches itself as helping “rack up wins for Democratic officeholders and progressive causes all over the country,” spend its resources producing videos both to help and hurt the Kennedy campaign?

Three Point’s biggest client is Future Forward PAC, according to federal filings, one of the largest super PACs supporting Kamala Harris’s bid. Recently, Three Point has made ads for a handful of Democratic governors, including rising stars like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and Colorado’s Jared Polis. Clare Gannon, who founded Three Point, was once the deputy press secretary for the Democratic National Committee.

Three Point did not respond to The Intercept’s questions about the videos, including whether any of them aired or in which markets.

But the videos — which were shared with The Intercept — offer a rare window into how major-party operatives game out different ways to incorporate potential spoiler candidates like Kennedy into their messaging strategy.

Bernard Tamas, a political scientist who focuses on the role of third parties in American politics, said there is a long history of the major parties leveraging independents and third-party candidates. “From a strategic perspective for most parties, the ends justify the means, and so there isn’t much hand-wringing about how they win those elections,” Tamas said. 

Republicans have a bit more experience in boosting non-GOP candidates to siphon votes away from Democrats, Tamas said. This month, GOP-aligned lawyers swooped in to try to get Cornel West on the ballot in Arizona, which ultimately failed. In 2004, Michigan Republicans helped Ralph Nader gather enough signatures to qualify.

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Democrats have poured money into supporting far-right Republicans — including an anti-abortion candidate — when they think it can help their electoral odds. In 2022, the House Majority PAC, another Three Point client, funded ads promoting a MAGA election-denier trying to unseat an incumbent Republican, Rep. David Valadao, who voted to impeach Donald Trump.

But Democrats “tend to consider most third parties, even those ideologically closer to the Republican Party, as threats,” Tamas said. “The Democratic Party’s main strategy has been to try to block any candidate that might be a threat to them from getting onto the ballot.”

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Recently, Democrats challenged Kennedy’s ballot access in multiple states, including battlegrounds like North Carolina and Nevada. The DNC recently tried unsuccessfully to keep Jill Stein off the Wisconsin ballot.

The Three Point videos suggest some Democrats wanted to keep their options open on Kennedy and at least flirted with two strategies. An ad that lauded him for leaving “the Democratic Party to stand with law enforcement” might push conservatives to pick Kennedy over Trump. Another ad that slammed RFK Jr. as a “dangerous” radical and “too conservative” could woo less-conservative voters toward the Democratic ticket.

“It makes strategic sense for a Democratic Party-aligned media company to produce both pro- and anti-RFK Jr. ads,” Tamas said, especially since Kennedy’s campaign was a “hodgepodge of issues that weren’t distinct from what either major party was already covering.”

“With circumstances changing so fast, and with RFK Jr. getting onto the ballot in many states,” Tamas said, “the Democratic Party likely decided to prepare for both scenarios — Kennedy helping Harris more or Kennedy hurting Trump more — and then waiting for circumstances (and polling results) to determine whether attacking or promoting RFK Jr. made more sense.”

Three Point even produced dueling “in his own words” videos about Kennedy — one positive, one negative — with strikingly similar scripts and video montages, differentiated primarily by tone and the final title card. 

“Stand With Kennedy,” concludes the positive version, while the negative one urges voters to “Stand Against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

Earlier this year, Kennedy was polling relatively strongly for an independent candidate, sometimes in double-digits. But his prospects plummeted over the summer, especially after Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. When he withdrew from the race and endorsed Trump, Kennedy said he thought continuing to run would hurt Trump’s chances and benefit Harris.

Disclaimers on the pro-Kennedy ads indicate they were paid for by “Civic Truth Action.”

A super PAC with that name registered in late July with the Federal Election Commission, but it has not yet had to file any spending reports. Civic Truth Action does not have a website, but its treasurer, Chris Koob, has plenty of ties to Democrats. He previously worked for the Obama administration, multiple Democratic candidates, and the DNC, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Koob did not respond to The Intercept’s questions about Civic Truth Action’s involvement in the Three Point videos.

Three Point’s attack ads against RFK Jr. indicated they were paid for by a different entity: “Citizens For Truth.” The Intercept was unable to find an active committee with this name. Koob and Three Point did not answer whether Citizens For Truth is an alias for Civic Truth Action.