Michelle Obama's voter participation organization is spending big on Facebook ads to ensure that fans of several high-profile domestic abusers have the information they need to vote in the upcoming elections.
When We All Vote, the "nonpartisan" voter registration group that the former first lady founded in 2018, has invested more than $35,000 on Facebook ads in swing states over the past 90 days urging users to register to vote. But "microtargeting" data obtained from the Facebook Ad Library show that Obama's group is gearing its ads to be seen almost exclusively by young voters under 35 who are fans of hip-hop, particularly the genre's biggest stars.
Those stars include Chris Brown, who infamously beat his then-girlfriend Rihanna in a Lamborghini the night before the 2009 Grammys, leaving her with a swollen face and black eyes. Obama's group is also targeting fans of Tory Lanez, the Canadian rapper who is scheduled to spend the next nine years in a California prison for shooting fellow hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion, to ensure Lanez's fans are registered to vote in time for the November elections.
Obama's group is also prioritizing its voter registration ads to be delivered to supporters of Tyga, the rapper who was arrested in 2021 on suspicion of felony domestic violence. Tyga's ex-girlfriend, Camaryn Swanson, alleged before the rapper's arrest that he had "physically assaulted" her and left her with a black eye. The Los Angeles City Attorney's office declined to charge Tyga "as long as he stays out of trouble legally."
As When We All Vote appeals to girlfriend-beating musicians, it has also appealed to their victims' fans appealed in an effort to promote voter registration. It featured Rihanna in X posts on May 15 and June 13 and listed Megan Thee Stallion as a member of its "#VotingSquad" in a post earlier this month.
Representatives for the singers did not return requests for comment.
Michelle Obama launched When We All Vote in 2018. Cochairs of the group include Stephen Curry, Becky G, Selena Gomez, Tom Hanks, H.E.R., Liza Koshy, Jennifer Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monáe, Chris Paul, Megan Rapinoe, Shonda Rhimes, Bretman Rock, Kerry Washington, and Rita Wilson. When We All Vote is a project of Civic Nation, a charity led by Kyle Lierman, a former senior engagement adviser for Michelle Obama's husband, former president Barack Obama.
When We All Vote calls itself a "leading national, nonpartisan initiative" that aims to register "voters of every age to build an informed and engaged electorate." This description aligns with IRS regulations that require charities that engage in voter registration drives to do so in a "neutral, non-partisan manner." On the surface, When We All Vote's Facebook ads appear to do just that. Michelle Obama's group ran a series of ads in July and August simply stating, "Make sure you're ready to vote this November," and linking to an online voter registration form.
But behind the scenes, Obama's group directed Facebook to deliver its ads only to young hip-hop fans—an overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning electorate—in the swing states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential election, including Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia.
Tina Tchen, who served as Michelle Obama's chief of staff, served as the founding treasurer of When We All Vote. In 2021, she resigned from Time's Up, a #MeToo group she cofounded, after revelations that she helped disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D.) smear an employee who accused him of sexual misconduct.
When We All Vote isn't the only charitable voter registration organization to microtarget its Facebook ads to a partisan audience. The Voter Participation Center, another self-described "non-partisan" charity, has spent more than $760,000 to run a staggering 8,235 voter registration Facebook ads in swing states. Like Obama's group, the Voter Participation Center's Facebook ads appear on the surface to meet the nonpartisan standard required by the IRS, the Washington Free Beacon reported. But behind the scenes, the group directed the social media site not to deliver its message to users interested in NASCAR, golf, Jeeps, or other interests and hobbies typically associated with Republican men.
Self-proclaimed nonpartisan voter registration groups that engage in partisan microtargeting on Facebook could soon face a reckoning from members of Congress. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) in a Sept. 4 letter demanded the IRS investigate whether the Voter Participation Center's Facebook ad campaign in the lead-up to the 2024 elections violated charity laws.
When We All Vote did not respond to a request for comment.