According to reporting from Semafor, the prediction market Kalshi sought to clean up apparent messes on Friday after some of its influencer relationships essentially made it look like it was paying to distribute conspiracy content online. Posts have now been removed at Kalshi’s request. However, similar sponsored posts associated with Kalshi’s competitor, Polymarket, do not appear to be disappearing. The news event that triggered the issue was the Los Angeles mayoral election. In California politics, there’s this concept known to locals as the red mirage, in which Republicans tend to look dominant on election nights—as if our deep blue state is finally having the change of heart much of America apparently fantasizes about. Republicans very much did look dominant on election night, owing to the fact that Republicans’ voting patterns tend to get their votes counted first. But it’s been a few days since the primary on June 2, and Republicans’ hopes for their preferred outcomes are slowly fading. That’s making people suspicious. And some of those people have branding relationships with the big prediction markets.
Notice how the mail-in ballots that come in last second always end up voting Democrat Totally a coincidence, nothing to see here https://t.co/6bYH6kvLov — Kangmin Lee | 이강민 (@kangminlee) June 4, 2026 For instance, right-wing influencer Kangmin Lee posted an embed of a Polymarket post on X, and wrote “Notice how the mail-in ballots that come in last second always end up voting Democrat,” adding, “Totally a coincidence, nothing to see here.” At the bottom of that post it says “Paid partnership.”
