The Digital Power of Rep. AOC – Part I
Also inside: scammers make use of Trump AI slop, anti-abortion groups on Snapchat, and more
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) has been a political lightning rod pretty much since she first took office in 2018 – but one thing that most people can agree on is that she is a savvy online communicator. As a Millennial and a digital native herself, when it comes to social media, AOC seems like she just *gets* it.
So it comes as no surprise that as we enter the second Trump era, many Democrats – whether they like her or not – are looking to her to take point when it comes to resistance, especially online.
In this two-parter, we’ll look at both AOC’s paid and organic social media strategy in 2025, starting with her paid strategy (because she has spent over a million dollars on Facebook + Instagram ads in the last few weeks). But first…
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, U.S. political advertisers spent $8.5 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Someone appears to be running a big ol’ scam with Facebook + Instagram featuring AI videos of Donald Trump… RFY News Group spent almost $120,000 on ads from about nine different disclaimers. The ads falsely claim that Trump announced a $6,400 stimulus check, and some of them feature AI videos of Donald Trump talking about these fake checks. FYSA, I’ve been checking in and it seems like Meta has been trying to taking these ads down over the course of this week (given that these videos seem to clearly violate their AI ad policy)... but, as of publication, seems to have still missed some of them.
Also notably, Sen. Chris Murphy is using campaign resources to run ads to drum up opposition against Trump – and raise money. Murphy, like Rep. AOC (more on this below) and Sen. Warren, was re-elected in 2024 but appears to be using campaign resources to push back against this new admin (and bring in grassroots cash).
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent just over $1.3 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
There appears to be another fake Trump subsidy scam running on Google as well – this time, coming from a financial services group in Florida. The ads *don’t* feature AI but do seem to promise subsidies accredited to Trump and link to scammy sites to “claim” the subsidy (these sites seem to actually offer insurance policies…).
To be clear, scammy ads using Trump’s likeness in some way are nothing new on ad platforms… but it seems like the lax content + ad behavior we’ve been seeing from platforms paired with the “flood the zone” chaos strategy from the Trump admin is creating an ideal atmosphere for grifters harnessing misinfo online. Stay vigilant, people!
On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $779,000 on ads in 2025. According to X’s political ad disclosure, here are the top spenders year to date:
A dark money group with ties to the Republican Party called Americans for Pharma Reform (AKA Bust Big Pharma) spent ~$9,000 on X/Twitter this past week and started running ads calling for the Senate to confirm RFK Jr as Trump’s HHS Secretary (RFK Jr. was, in fact, confirmed yesterday).
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $70,900 on ads in 2025. Here are the top spenders year to date:
Last week, I wrote about Florida Pregnancy Care Network, the funder of crisis pregnancy centers, spending a ton of Snapchat ads… and in the past week, it appears four other crisis pregnancy centers (Life Choices Center, ABC Pregnancy Care Center, Community Pregnancy Center, and Options for Women - River Falls) all ran Snap ads as well.
The Digital Powers of Rep. AOC
We all know Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pretty prolific on her social media accounts (more on that later) – but she and her team are also spending a TON on paid media from her campaign account to push back against the Trump admin and this new MAGA-heavy era.
In the last 30 days (specifically from 1/11 to 2/8), she has spent a whopping $1.13 million on Facebook + Instagram ads running from her campaign disclaimer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress. And from the charts above, we can see that almost half of that total 30-day ad spend – $521,310 – was spent last week (2/2-2/8) alone.
Let’s zoom in on these most recent ads real quick.
The ads are running nationwide and seem to have a twofold purpose: the first, obviously, to fundraise. Rep. AOC won re-election in 2024, but the Trump chaos certainly gives progressives who are taking the lead on opposing him a huge chance to make a lot of money for their PACs and future campaigns (and FYSA, the Squad Victory Fund is also spent ~$14,000 this past week running fundraising ads on Facebook + Instagram using AOC’s name).
The second purpose appears to be to continue to make clear that Rep. AOC is one of the most popular figures in this era of resistance against Trump and one of the most successful (albeit controversial) online communicators that Democrats have – and the ads that feature her talking directly to camera about the tech oligarchs supporting Trump definitely show her prowess.
Two more quick notes on audience and message here: first, Meta allows advertisers to do detailed targeting, which is essentially targeting ads to people in niche interest groups. Here are the ones that Team AOC has been targeting this past month:
I want to note that only a small percentage amounts (just under 6%) of the total ad spend was targeted specifically towards these groups and that this detailed targeting is not an uncommon practice at all... but it’s interesting to me because it does seem to paint a bit of a picture of who exactly they are expecting to get their grassroots cash from.
Second, I am a big fan of using WordClouds to distill language and get a glimpse at a communicator’s message box and strategy. To that end, FWIW, here is one that shows the frequency of words used in the ad copy of Team AOC’s Meta ads that they’ve run over the past month (note: filler/syntax words have been filtered out – and it accounts for unique ad copy, not duplicates).
That’s all for now – tune in next week, when we’ll take a look at Rep. AOC's organic digital strategy 👀
More from around the internet:
Shot: A new study from the BBC found that 51% of AI chatbots’ answers to questions about the news were significantly wrong in some way, including failures “to differentiate between fact and opinion.”
Chaser: apparently, a Google survey found that 93% of Gen Z workers say they use 2 or more AI tools a week.
It’s been a big week for people trying to make social media platforms that are less toxic than existing ones: a developer made an app called WikiTok, that feels like TikTok but just lets you find random Wikipedia articles, and Buzzfeed is launching a social platform that serves as “a joyful alternative to addictive social media feeds.”
ICYMI, Kyle has a fabulous new newsletter focusing on politics, media, and influence called Chaotic Era – he has an interesting deep dive this week into whether politics is making a comeback on Facebook.
TikTok is back on the Apple and Google app stores after it was removed during the 14-hour drama that was the TikTok ban last month.
Our weekly clips round-up is coming back! Every Tuesday, paid subscribers will get a debrief on the stories about politics, tech, social media, media, and journalism. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can right here ⬇️
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I notice Hillsdale college is a major spender. What are they spending on?
Amazing read 👏🏼