Obscure Iowa non-profit paid for flyers claiming Trump is pro-LGBTQ+ rights
Recent flyers painting Donald Trump as a pro-LGBTQ+ rights candidate, a “transgender trailblazer”, sent to some Iowa households were backed by an obscure non-profit that registered as a business two weeks ago.
“Donald Trump stood up for MARRIAGE EQUALITY and TRANS RIGHTS” reads one section of the double-sided one-page mailer, according to images reported by the progressive Iowa politics blog Bleeding Heartland over the weekend.
“It takes courage to change the culture, and we thank Donald Trump for standing with LGBTQ+ Americans to fight against the close minded Republicans who won’t accept change,” reads another section of the mailer, paid for by a group called Advancing Our Values.
Trump has made contradictory comments on LGBTQ+ rights, saying he was “fine” with same-sex marriage during the 2016 campaign but later rolled back protections for transgender patients as president – the Trump administration reversed an Obamaera rule defining protections against sex discrimination as encompassing gender identity in 2020.
The flyers came as a surprise to many in the state. “It’s an odd piece of advertising,” said Dave Peterson, a professor of political science at Iowa State University and a former editor of the academic quarterly Political Behavior. With months to go before the Iowa Republican caucuses in January, most candidates are still doing most of their advertising on TV, said Peterson.
The group Advancing Our Values appears to be a Des Moines-based nonprofit that registered with the secretary of state’s office two weeks ago. The Guardian was unable to reach a representative of Advancing Our Values for comment.
According to the group’s incorporation papers posted online, it registered as a section 501(c)(4) non-profit – a status that allows it to “engage in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office” as long as its activity is not the main fundraising arm for any candidate’s campaign. One individual, Kyle Adema, of Nebraska, is listed as its chairperson. The Guardian was unable to reach Adema for comment on this story.
Following the blogpost, there was some online speculation, largely by rightwing voices, that the mailers were funded by a progressive group. One such group, Progress Iowa, runs out of the same office building as the non-profit’s registered agent, Cogency Global, Inc.
But Progress Iowa’s executive director, Mike Sinovic, confirmed to the Guardian that Progress Iowa had “absolutely nothing to do with these mailers”. “This is clearly intended to be antiTrump,” said University of Iowa political science professor Timothy Hagle, who also received the mailer. But it’s unclear if the mailer was associated with a candidate or a “rogue outfit”, he said.
The non-profit behind the mailer is not a known LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group, writes Laura Belin in the Bleeding Heartland post. That makes it less likely that the ad was intended to draw more voters to Trump, said Hagle.
An ad portraying Trump as a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights could turn some Iowa caucus-goers away from him, said Hagle. Just under half of Republican voters say they support same-sex marriage, according to a Gallup poll released in June. Earlier this month, the DeSantis War Room Twitter account shared a now-deleted video attacking Trump for supporting gay and transgender people.
“For any other candidate, you’re going to have to peel off some of those Trump supporters if you expect to win the caucuses,” said Hagle, who is also the author of two books on the 2012 and 2020 Iowa caucuses. “Maybe a mailer like this was intended to do that.”
Trump placed second in the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2016 and won overwhelmingly as the incumbent in 2020. Recent polling shows Trump is currently the frontrunner for 2024.
Several pools of money can help fund political ads. For US presidential elections, individuals can directly give to candidates themselves. But those donations are capped under current campaign finance laws.
Individuals and corporations can drop larger sums of money into Super Pacs, which can receive unlimited contributions from any donor and cannot legally coordinate with any campaign. They must report their donors to the Federal Election Commission.
A third type of political fundraisers are billed as “dark money” groups. Organizations in this camp – including 501(c)(4) non-profits like Advancing Our Values – are not required by law to disclose to voters the source of their funding.