Alana Goodman writes for the Washington Free Beacon about an interesting development on the political left.
A cadre of left-wing strategists and Hollywood insiders with experience bringing celebrities and influencers to back Democrats quietly launched a new organization, Stage Left, dedicated to “content creation and issue amplification,” corporate filings reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. The group’s founding directors include Kamala Harris’s “celebrity whisperer,” Greg Propper, the man who led the Harris campaign’s controversial strategy to shell out millions on celebrity appearances. His involvement indicates that Stage Left may serve as an entity through which Democrats can pay celebrities and influencers for political advocacy.
Stage Left was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in Washington, D.C., on June 22, records show. Founded by a handful of ex-Obama aides, entertainment industry figures, and left-wing media strategists who specialize in the celebrity “influencer” sphere, the group describes itself in the filings as a “Non-profit organization engaged in content creation and issue amplification.”
One of Stage Left’s directors, Democratic public relations guru Propper, was dubbed Harris’s “celebrity whisperer,” helped arrange for celebrities to appear at her campaign events and for them to endorse her failed 2024 presidential bid, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Harris’s campaign paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to production companies and managers of celebrities who joined her on the campaign trail, from Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen to rappers Fat Joe and 2 Chainz.
The expenditures, revealed in federal campaign finance disclosures, prompted scrutiny from Democrats who argued that Harris’s celebrity-studded campaign stops cost exorbitant sums but did little to generate support. Enter Stage Left.
The firm’s launch comes as Democratic candidates increasingly attempt to boost their fan bases by funneling money to left-wing firms that, in turn, pay online influencers to boost their campaigns. Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, for example, has paid more than $36,000 to a firm that specializes in “creator-led campaigns” and has a “network of powerful online messengers” on its payroll, the Free Beacon reported.
