Cambridge Analytica—the data firm accused of improperly harvesting personal data from an estimated 87 million Facebook users to build voter profiles—was paid by a political action committee for work on Louisiana’s 2016 U.S. Senate race, The USA Today Network of Louisiana reports.
Warrior PAC, which supported tea party favorite Rob Maness in the 2016 race, spent $480,000 with Cambridge Analytica that year, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
The PAC also spent money in support of 3rd District U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins’ and 4th District U.S. Rep Mike Johnson’s 2016 races—though the consultant who directed that spending said he didn’t hire Cambridge Analytica.
“I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but I am now,” says Maness, a Republican who secured 5% of the vote in the 2016 election eventually won by Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy. “I can tell you it doesn’t look like they helped me.”
Cambridge Analytica is at the center of a data privacy scandal that has shaken Facebook, sending its stock shares tumbling, and sparking investigations in both the United States and England. Read more.
