The election primary ads in Alabama warn people that a candidate running for a state representative seat was bought by dark money from “big insurance,” and that a candidate running for state senate failed to stand up for President Donald Trump against “left wing extremists” who “fight dirty.”
In Georgia, they tell people that a Republican candidate would enable “illegal aliens” to “flood the border and even vote in our elections,” while claiming a Democrat took money away from schools and healthcare.
They advise people in Illinois that a candidate can’t be trusted because they “will raise your rent” as an “inside man” for “shady” corporate developers, and people in Maryland that a candidate “votes with Republicans against women’s health” and is lenient on spousal rape.
Unbeknownst to most viewers, sportsbook operators DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and Bet365 have quietly funded these omnipresent, emotionally charged political advertisements through a new web of super PACs. The gaming giants have given more than $40 million in the past year to a political action committee called Win for America, which then disperses the cash to affiliated, hyper-partisan super PACs that try to influence state races around the country.
