Left-wing Democrat Graham Platner’s “grassroots” campaign for Senate in Maine has paid tens of thousands of dollars to a left-wing consulting firm that pays a “network of powerful online messengers”—better known as influencers—to promote Democratic candidates and causes on social media, campaign finance disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. One of the firm’s featured influencers has showered Platner with praise for attacking billionaires and accusing Israel of genocide and solicited donations for Platner’s campaign without disclosing any financial connection.
Platner has paid the Louisville, Kentucky-based company Be a Good Influence LLC—commonly referred to as Good Influence—at least $36,437.94 since September for “digital organizing,” according to his campaign’s spending records, which show a recent payment of $4,114 on March 27. Founded by Democratic operative Stuart Perelmuter, who served as communications director for former Kentucky Democratic congressman John Yarmuth, the firm calls itself “the trusted partner for measurable creator-led campaigns.”
“Good Influence creates meaningful impact for causes and campaigns through our network of powerful online messengers,” the company’s website says. “Rather than paying to work with a single influencer or content creator, Good Influence bundles elite news and cause-focused online creators together to create a network effect for our partners. With their combined audience and a united voice, our creators effectively mobilize awareness and action for issues we care about.”
Good Influence does not list all of the influencers in its “network,” but its website includes headshots for some of its “creators.” They include Qasim Rashid, a Pakistani-born left-wing activist and self-described “human rights lawyer” who ran for Congress unsuccessfully in both Virginia and Illinois—and who has since emerged as a top online supporter of Platner.
In a Substack article posted on Sept. 8—five days after Platner first paid Good Influence $8,350.50—Rashid credited Platner with sending “the best fundraising text I’ve ever seen.” Rashid said his “jaw dropped” when he saw the text from Platner, which accused ICE of kidnapping people, charged Israel with “genocide,” and said, “billionaires have taken over our government.” Rashid said it “convinced me to donate to him.”
“I was astounded!” Rashid wrote. “A U.S. Marine veteran, running in a purple state, who rejects billionaire funding, condemns ICE raids, condemns fascism, condemns genocide, and acknowledges the fact that the status quo isn’t working. Refreshing doesn’t begin to describe how I felt reading his text.”
Rashid ended the post with a plea for his subscribers to “donate directly to Graham Platner’s campaign today,” whether “that’s $5, $50, the max of $3500, or simply spreading the word by sharing this article.” The post does not disclose any financial connection to or sponsorship from Good Influence or Platner’s campaign.
Platner’s payments to Good Influence are at odds with the “grassroots” image his campaign presents. Platner said in October that he doesn’t “need corporate PACs” because he has a “grassroots army.” Two months later, he called his Senate run “the strongest grassroots campaign Maine has ever seen.”
Mainstream media outlets have painted Platner in a similar light, with Politico citing his “grassroots energy” and the New Yorker suggesting his “grassroots organizing can beat the establishment.” None have reported Platner’s payments to Good Influence, including the New York Times, which last week published a piece on campaign payments to influencers that did not mention Platner.
A Good Influence spokesman said the firm “does not comment on its work for clients.” Platner’s campaign and Rashid did not respond to requests for comment.
Rashid has continued to promote Platner since his initial September post. He landed a brief “1 on 1” sitdown with Platner in October, posted to TikTok, in which he asked Platner questions like, “What happened to the Democratic Party of FDR?” and, “Who’s going to win the World Series this year?”
Months later, on March 16, Rashid published a 50-minute podcast interview with Platner titled “Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner on DEFEATING Susan Collins.” The conversation centered on “the illegal war on Iran, Graham’s opposition to AIPAC and the genocide in Gaza, rebuking the right wing attacks on Trans people, and the economic populism that is attracting voters from across the political spectrum to support Graham,” according to Rashid’s description. He described Platner’s campaign as “serious,” said he was “excited about it,” and encouraged listeners to “go to his campaign website, donate, volunteer, do what you can.”
Rashid did not disclose a sponsorship from Good Influence or Platner’s campaign. Eleven days after Rashid posted the podcast, Platner sent Good Influence another $4,114.
Rashid is the primary Platner cheerleader listed on Good Influence’s “creator” roster, though other influencers listed on the firm’s site have also promoted Platner. Self-described “LGBTQ+ advocate with 2 moms” Josh Helfgott, who is known for his TikTok series “Gay News,” published Facebook posts on April 8 and April 9 lauding Platner’s call to impeach “at least two” Supreme Court justices and highlighting a poll that showed Platner leading Republican incumbent senator Susan Collins. Any Platner payments to Good Influence from around that time would be included on Platner’s upcoming campaign finance report, which is due in July.
Good Influence, which received more than $600,000 from Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign in 2024 and has since taken payments from Democrats like Michigan Senate hopeful Mallory McMorrow and Pennsylvania House candidate Paige Cognetti, does not require influencers to disclose when they’re paid, as Perelmuter, the Good Influence founder, told Semafor in 2023, when the group operated under the name atAdvocacy.
“Several of our creators put it on there anyway, we encourage them to do what they’re comfortable with,” he said. “But sometimes those tags mess up the algorithms, and they just don’t get seen by as many people.”
Federal campaigns like Platner’s are required to disclose any payments made to Good Influence, though they do not need to disclose which influencers in particular were paid to boost candidates. Political nonprofits, meanwhile, are only required to disclose their “five highest compensated independent contractors to which the organization paid more than $100,000 for services,” according to the IRS, meaning nonprofit political groups could, in theory, pay for social media content with no disclosures at all.
“You can’t see where the money is coming from, and you can’t see where it’s going,” Brendan Fischer of the left-of-center Campaign Legal Center watchdog group told the New York Times.
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