Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is fighting hard to win back his gubernatorial seat against Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin, and his latest ad campaign might spark a bit of bad blood.
The campaign ties his opponent to a role in music mogul Scooter Braun’s acquisition of Taylor Swift‘s master recordings in 2019. Youngkin previously served as co-chief executive of private equity firm the Carlyle Group, which worked with Braun to purchase the Big Machine Label Group, acquiring all of Swift’s master recordings.
McAuliffe ran ads across social media starting on Tuesday, attempting to sway young voters about Youngkin’s past with the firm, saying, “Did you know that Republican candidate for Governor, Glenn Youngkin, helped buy Taylor Swift’s masters out from under her when he was co-CEO of Carlyle Group?”
The ads specifically target people using Google to search Swift’s name in Virginia, the McAuliffe campaign told Axios.
MCAULIFFE SAYS PARENTS SHOULDN’T TELL SCHOOLS WHAT TO TEACH, HANDING YOUNGKIN A CAMPAIGN AD
In the Virginia gubernatorial race, Democrat Terry McAuliffe is targeting Taylor Swift fans with ads attacking his opponent’s role in the controversial sale of the pop star’s masters https://t.co/4bmUGglFbY pic.twitter.com/1lPZKAv1cM
— Stereogum (@stereogum) October 6, 2021
Youngkin’s campaign issued a statement to the Washington Examiner on the Democrat’s campaign ad, calling it an act of “desperation” as voters have less than a month to decide on their preferred candidate for the Nov. 2 election.
“Terry McAuliffe has reached the stage of desperation in his campaign where he’s rolling out the most baseless attacks to see what sticks. It’s a pathetic fall that could only be achieved by a 43-year political hack,” said Youngkin spokesman Christian Martinez.
Swift previously said she begged Big Machine Records founder Scott Borchetta permission to buy back her masters. However, the label would only sell off her records one at a time — if, and only if, she made additional records for Big Machine. She called the situation her “worst case scenario” in a June 2019 post on Tumblr.
The Democratic Governors Association previously weighed in on the dilemma between Youngkin and Swift, tweeting, “This is not exactly why we elect #DemGovs but it’s definitely part of it” in February.
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The Washington Examiner contacted McAuliffe’s campaign but did not immediately receive a response.
