Influencer running for U.S. Senate challenges campaign finance rules

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Senate candidate and online influencer Caroline Gleich asked the FEC to modernize campaign finance rules she says disadvantage people who make a living online.

Caroline Gleich, a ski mountaineer and online content creator, is running for the U.S. Senate. Caroline Gleich, the Utah Democrat vying to replace retiring Sen. Mitt Romney , is asking the Federal Election Commission to update its rules for the age of the online influencer.

Under current FEC rules, any sponsored social post that features Gleich and is distributed in Utah within 90 days of the Nov. 5 election could be considered a “coordinated communication.” As such, it would count as an in-kind political contribution and have to be listed in her campaign finance reports. Gleich is asking the FEC to agree that sponsored posts are “business communications” and therefore exempt from the rule.

“These rules were written when social media was in its infancy,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the elections and government program at the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. “So in innumerable instances, they just don’t take into account the whole concept of a social media influencer.”FEC rules can also require companies that mention federal candidates in advertisements to disclose them as electioneering communications, he said.

Gleich says the United States needs more influencers to run for federal office, because they could deliver a much-needed boost to Capitol Hill’s tech savvy, she said. “People who understand social media will make extremely powerful, elected officials,” she said ahead of the filing. “Content creators know firsthand the impacts of troll farms, algorithms, and the threats to American democracy.

 

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