2026-10-09T09:00:44.954Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/09/politics/epstein-files-midterm-ads
杰弗里·爱泼斯坦已经去世七年，但在本届选举季的竞选广告中，他却无处不在。民主党几乎清一色地将他作为攻击对手或自我宣传的工具，共和党也偶尔会提及这一话题。
CNN的一项分析发现，在2026年中期选举中，候选人和外部团体已经投放了超过160条与爱泼斯坦相关的独特广告，总广告时长投入超过3500万美元。这与2024年总统大选形成了鲜明对比——当时仅投放了三条相关广告，且全部集中在佛罗里达州的地方选举中，而爱泼斯坦丑闻正是在该州首次曝光。
唐纳德·特朗普总统及其盟友在2024年大选期间通过承诺提高透明度、期待更多爱泼斯坦相关记录被披露，使得这一议题持续发酵。但今年，推动广告投放激增的是民主党，其相关广告占CNN此周期统计总量的近90%。
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这些广告凸显了爱泼斯坦事件的政治影响力。近一年前，在美国国会民主党人主导的激烈政治斗争后，司法部披露了数百万页相关文件。尽管要求问责的公众压力已积累多年，但该议题此前从未在选举中占据显著位置——直到本届选举季。
今年春季的民调显示，两党多数选民都认为爱泼斯坦文件表明，有权势者很少为自身行为承担责任，但目前尚不清楚该议题在中期选举中的具体影响。
许多攻击广告包含误导甚至虚假的言论，包括指责对手未投票支持披露爱泼斯坦文件，有时还将对手与爱泼斯坦前助手或所谓的“爱泼斯坦圈子”扯上牵强联系。
爱泼斯坦相关广告的大部分支出都投向了关键的参议院竞选席位，反映出该信息传递策略在这些选区的激烈程度。佐治亚州、德克萨斯州和俄亥俄州的竞选活动在爱泼斯坦相关广告上的支出位居前三，其中大部分资金来自资金雄厚的民主党人，他们将这场争议作为竞选活动的重点。
在佐治亚州，据Ad Impact的数据，已有超过1000万美元用于与爱泼斯坦相关的广告，其中超过四分之三的资金直接来自民主党参议员乔恩·奥索夫的竞选团队。奥索夫多次攻击对手、共和党众议员迈克·柯林斯，将其描绘成特朗普的忠实追随者，指责其投票反对披露爱泼斯坦文件。
“迈克·柯林斯投票掩盖爱泼斯坦文件。即便在他得知有14岁女孩遭到强奸后，”奥索夫在一则Facebook广告中援引一名前美国法警的话说道，“他还试图告诉我们这是一场骗局。”
但这则广告具有误导性。
柯林斯与除九名共和党众议员外的所有人一道，在2025年7月的程序性投票中反对披露文件，但在特朗普转变态度并敦促共和党人投票支持披露后，他最终在去年11月投票支持披露文件。柯林斯也没有直接使用“骗局”一词，但他的团队指出，特朗普在Truth Social上的一篇帖子将其称为“杰弗里·爱泼斯坦骗局”，以此为政府停摆事件辩解。
柯林斯反过来指责奥索夫虚伪，称其接受了科技亿万富翁里德·霍夫曼的竞选捐款。霍夫曼是自由派捐赠者，曾是爱泼斯坦的助手，也曾到访爱泼斯坦的私人岛屿。（霍夫曼未被指控与爱泼斯坦的罪行有任何不当行为，并已为与爱泼斯坦的交往表示歉意。）柯林斯随后要求奥索夫退还这笔捐款。
在俄亥俄州，已有超过600万美元用于爱泼斯坦相关广告。前民主党参议员谢罗德·布朗（2024年连任失败）和共和党参议员乔恩·赫斯特德都通过歪曲事实，就对方接受爱泼斯坦“助手”捐款一事互相攻击。
布朗投放了一则又一则广告，试图将赫斯特德与莱斯·韦克斯纳联系起来。韦克斯纳是俄亥俄州亿万富翁、前维多利亚的秘密首席执行官，曾聘请爱泼斯坦担任其理财经理。爱泼斯坦文件显示，FBI曾一度将韦克斯纳视为爱泼斯坦罪行的潜在同谋。
“赫斯特德从爱泼斯坦最亲密的朋友兼同谋那里收取了超过11.6万美元的捐款，去年就在他投票阻止披露爱泼斯坦文件的几周前，还从他那里获得了最高额捐款。乔恩·赫斯特德：他到底在为谁工作？”一则反赫斯特德广告的旁白说道。
韦克斯纳否认了与爱泼斯坦相关的所有不当行为指控，并在20多年间为赫斯特德捐款。赫斯特德最近一次接受韦克斯纳的捐款是在2025年夏天。
赫斯特德在去年9月的程序性投票中反对司法部长披露文件，但在特朗普面临压力并敦促共和党人投票支持后，他于2025年11月与参议院其他议员一致投票支持披露文件。
赫斯特德的发言人艾米·纳托斯表示，该竞选团队已从可用资金中向反性 trafficking慈善机构捐赠了超过3.4万美元。此前韦克斯纳捐赠的资金已被使用，无法追回。
作为回应，赫斯特德投放了一则广告，称布朗是骗子：“在华盛顿待了32年让谢罗德·布朗变成了骗子。真相是：乔恩·赫斯特德投票支持披露爱泼斯坦文件，而参议员布朗却从爱泼斯坦助手那里收取了10万美元。”广告旁白说道。
赫斯特德的竞选团队向CNN提供了一份所谓的与爱泼斯坦有联系的布朗捐款者名单，其中包括霍夫曼和前哈佛校长拉里·萨默斯。
但该名单还包括与爱泼斯坦联系牵强的人士，或其联系早于爱泼斯坦2000年代中期被捕的人士，例如亿万富翁慈善家乔治·索罗斯、对冲基金亿万富翁戴维·E·肖和好莱坞经纪人凯西·瓦瑟曼。
在德克萨斯州，民主党人詹姆斯·塔拉里科的竞选团队至少花费了490万美元投放广告，抨击共和党总检察长肯·帕克斯顿的办公室与一名涉嫌儿童性犯罪者达成认罪协议，仅需服刑一天。
广告旁白称该交易是“为爱泼斯坦式的给有权势者的宽大协议，为一名人脉广泛的儿童性侵者”，随后说道：“肯·帕克斯顿的腐败危及我们的孩子。华盛顿不需要更多保护恋童癖的人。”
近二十年前，爱泼斯坦与联邦检察官达成了一项秘密且前所未有的协议，使其得以逃避联邦性 trafficking指控，仅因州卖淫指控（其中一起涉及未成年人）在县监狱服刑13个月。据幸存者称，即便在居家监禁期间，爱泼斯坦仍在虐待年轻女孩和妇女。
帕克斯顿办公室的认罪协议今年早些时候在该州引发公愤，甚至遭到法官的谴责。该案最初导致审判无效，检察官不得不选择重新审理此案或与犯罪者达成认罪协议。
在法庭作证往往会再次创伤受害者，尤其是未成年人，受害者及其家属拒绝再次出庭作证。这导致检察官达成了认罪协议，该协议得到了受害者家属的签字同意。
帕克斯顿在9月底的一场竞选活动中为该认罪协议辩护：“确保这个孩子得到保护比获得我们真正想要的判决更重要。以任何其他方式呈现这件事都是极其不诚实的，因为事实就是如此。”
受害者家属公开表示，他们“厌倦了在这场选举中被利用”。
爱泼斯坦相关广告最近在爱荷华州、缅因州、阿拉斯加州和堪萨斯州的关键参议院竞选活动中铺天盖地。
在科罗拉多州，弗吉尼亚·吉弗雷的家人出现在民主党人杰西卡·基林针对共和党众议员杰夫·克兰克的攻击广告中。吉弗雷是最知名的爱泼斯坦虐待幸存者，于2025年自杀身亡。克兰克代表该州第5国会选区。
吉弗雷的哥哥和嫂子表示，克兰克拒绝作为选民与他们会面，并投票掩盖爱泼斯坦文件。
“弗吉尼亚理应得到更好的待遇，”吉弗雷的兄弟斯凯·罗伯茨对着镜头说道，“杰夫·克兰克掩盖爱泼斯坦的罪行以保护唐纳德·特朗普。”
克兰克未签署两党请愿书要求披露爱泼斯坦文件，并在众议院 floor 投票中阻止审议该文件。但在特朗普敦促后，他最终在去年11月投票支持披露文件。
克兰克的一名发言人告诉CNN，共和党国会已经披露了这些文件，并称该广告的言论“故意含糊不清，缺乏事实依据”。
广告歪曲候选人与爱泼斯坦的牵强联系
一些广告严重歪曲了候选人与爱泼斯坦的联系，并将所有在文件中被提及的人都归咎有罪。被列入爱泼斯坦文件并不必然意味着存在不当行为。
在内布拉斯加州，共和党参议员皮特·里基茨在多则广告中将独立候选人丹·奥斯本描绘成一个贪婪的政客，靠竞选捐款牟利。其中一则广告称奥斯本“由爱泼斯坦圈子的成员资助”，并批评他与“所谓的爱泼斯坦人口贩子”一起筹款。
这则广告点名提到了民主党幕僚达纳·查辛，他的名字在2024年的一封邮件中出现过一次，一名代表一名女性的律师称该女性曾乘坐查辛的“小型螺旋桨飞机”前往爱泼斯坦在纽约的住所。该女性声称后来遭到爱泼斯坦的一名亿万富翁投资者助手的性侵犯。
查辛否认了这些指控，今年2月告诉《政客》杂志，“2024年3月邮件中与我相关的内容都不是真的”，并且他从未见过爱泼斯坦、麦克斯韦尔或那些被点名的助手。
CNN联系了查辛，但未收到回复。
奥斯本的竞选团队在2月取消了与查辛的筹款活动，并表示已将查辛捐赠的资金捐给了一家反性 trafficking非营利组织。保守派媒体《每日 Wire》后来报道称，该月该竞选团队在ActBlue平台上仍在为该活动募集捐款，尽管该活动已被取消。
奥斯本竞选团队的一名发言人称将奥斯本与爱泼斯坦联系起来“荒谬可笑”。
里基茨的竞选团队回应称，人们对奥斯本何时取消筹款活动以及是否将该活动的所有资金都捐出提出了质疑。
10月初，奥斯本的竞选团队投放了一则广告，显示爱泼斯坦、里基茨的捐赠者和里基茨之间存在两层关联。“如果你想要一位接受爱泼斯坦圈子资金的参议员，皮特·里基茨就是你的人选，”广告旁白说道。
在新罕布什尔州，民主党众议员克里斯·帕帕斯将目标对准了共和党人约翰·E·苏努努——一名再次参选的前参议员，因为“他的名字出现在爱泼斯坦文件中，且他否认曾参加过杰弗里·爱泼斯坦用于社交活动的卡塔尔多哈精英活动”，帕帕斯竞选团队的一则Facebook广告写道。
苏努努的竞选团队后来承认，他确实在2001年前往过多哈，并于2010年参加了在那里举行的世界经济论坛活动，该活动在爱泼斯坦文件中发现的邮件中被提及。在2010年的一封邮件中，爱泼斯坦提到“约翰·苏努努”在该活动中有“好故事”，但目前尚不清楚爱泼斯坦所指的是哪位约翰·苏努努——是前参议员还是前州长。
“正如几个月前报道的那样，约翰和他的父亲从未与鲍里斯·尼科利奇[原文如此]或杰弗里·爱泼斯坦见过面或有过任何交流。约翰认为爱泼斯坦是一个可鄙的人，”竞选发言人迈克·施林普夫在一份声明中说道。
在新墨西哥州，“负责任的新墨西哥”组织投放了一则广告，攻击民主党州长候选人黛布·哈兰，称她“乘坐爱泼斯坦的私人飞机前往华盛顿参加筹款活动，从爱泼斯坦的企业收取了数万美元，竞选团队甚至还回头索要更多”。
据当地媒体报道，这些言论具有误导性。2014年，哈兰作为民主党副州长候选人竞选时，曾乘坐飞机前往华盛顿参加筹款活动，但并非乘坐爱泼斯坦的私人飞机。根据文件中的一封邮件，爱泼斯坦的公司在时任新墨西哥州总检察长、她的竞选搭档加里·金的要求后包机。目前尚不清楚哈兰当时是否知情。
该广告歪曲了一封发给爱泼斯坦的感谢邮件，使其看起来像是哈兰发出的。那封邮件是金发出的。
该广告还声称哈兰接受了爱泼斯坦公司的数千美元竞选捐款。然而，在新墨西哥州，州长和副州长候选人——尽管后来在同一张选票上参选——在大选前各自拥有独立的竞选委员会。金接受了爱泼斯坦的竞选捐款。
哈兰投放了一则广告反驳该攻击广告：“事实核查人员称萨姆·布雷格曼对黛布·哈兰的攻击是谎言。黛布·哈兰从未乘坐过杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的飞机，从未向他要钱，并支持对他的罪行进行全面调查，”旁白说道。
然而，并非所有与爱泼斯坦相关的广告都是攻击广告。一些候选人正将自己定位为反对所谓“爱泼斯坦圈子”的人。这一术语最初由加利福尼亚州民主党众议员罗·卡纳提出，如今已成为民主党人的简洁反建制口号，帮助他们在今年秋天夺回权力。
俄亥俄州民主党众议员马西·卡普图尔面临一场激烈的连任竞选，她投放了一则广告，强调自己投票支持披露文件：“我多次投票支持披露爱泼斯坦文件中的每一个字和每一张照片，在他们入狱前我不会罢休，”卡普图尔在广告中说道，“我不为‘爱泼斯坦圈子’工作——那些出卖我们的自私自利之人。我为你们工作。”
众议院民主党高层杰米·拉斯金众议员在3月推出的一则Facebook广告中，为“爱泼斯坦圈子、马拉戈精英”筹款。同样，众议院监督委员会 ranking member罗伯特·加西亚今年也在Facebook上投放了广告，以其在该委员会的工作为基础筹集资金。
即便在针对共和党领导层候选人的希望渺茫的众议院竞选中，候选人也在以爱泼斯坦文件为竞选纲领。
康拉德·凯布尔，一名前英语专业学生转行的菜农，在路易斯安那州第4国会选区参选，他在Facebook上投放了几则广告，指责众议院议长迈克·约翰逊策划掩盖文件。在路易斯安那州第1国会选区参选、挑战众议院共和党二号人物史蒂夫·斯卡利斯的民主党人劳伦·朱厄特也采取了同样的做法。
自称共和党局外人的人士也接受了这一信息传递策略。保罗·邦达尔今年春天在德克萨斯州第32选区国会初选中落败，他投放了一则广告，表达对“政客们阻挠披露爱泼斯坦文件、不保护儿童”的厌恶。
对于在推动披露爱泼斯坦文件投票中发挥关键作用的肯塔基州众议员托马斯·马西而言，这一议题变得无所不包。他的竞选团队在竞选广告中宣传了他的努力。“我要求并带头确保我们承诺披露的爱泼斯坦文件全部公开，”马西在一则广告中说道。
但这不足以抵消特朗普及其盟友罢免这位叛逆保守派的坚定努力，马西在受到超过1500万美元外部支出的攻击后，在初选中输给了挑战者埃德·加利雷恩。
CNN的凯西·托兰为本报道做出了贡献。
How the Epstein files fueled $35 million in midterm ad blitz
2026-10-09T09:00:44.954Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/09/politics/epstein-files-midterm-ads
Jeffrey Epstein has been dead for seven years, but he’s all over campaign ads this election season, invoked overwhelmingly by Democrats — and occasionally by Republicans — to attack opponents or promote themselves.
A CNN analysis found that candidates and outside groups have aired more than 160 unique Epstein-related ads in the 2026 midterms, backed by more than $35 million in airtime. That marks a striking jump from the 2024 presidential election, when only three such ads aired — all in local Florida races, where the Epstein scandal first erupted.
President Donald Trump and his allies helped keep the issue alive during the 2024 campaign by promising greater transparency and raising expectations that more Epstein records would be released. But this year, Democrats are driving the advertising surge, accounting for nearly 90% of the ads identified by CNN this cycle.
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The ads underscore the political potency of the Epstein saga, nearly a year after the Justice Department released millions of pages of files following a bruising political fight led mostly by Democrats in Congress. While public pressure for accountability has been building for years, the issue hasn’t featured prominently in elections – until this season.
Polling from the spring shows majorities of voters from both political parties believed the Epstein files showed that powerful people are rarely held accountable for their actions, but it’s unclear how the issue is playing out in the midterm elections.
Many of the attack ads feature misleading or even false claims about their opponents, including criticism over failing to vote for the release of the Epstein files, and, sometimes, tenuous ties to former Epstein associates or the so-called “Epstein class.”
The bulk of Epstein ad spending has gone toward battleground Senate races, reflecting the intensity of the messaging efforts there. Contests in Georgia, Texas and Ohio rank as the top three in terms of money spent on Epstein-related ads, with much of that money coming from well-funded Democrats making the controversy a point of emphasis in their campaigns.
In Georgia, more than $10 million has been spent on ads related to Epstein, according to data from Ad Impact, with more than three quarters of that money coming directly from the campaign of Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. He has repeatedly attacked his opponent, Republican Rep. Mike Collins, casting Collins as a Trump loyalist who voted against releasing the Epstein files.
“Mike Collins voted to cover up the Epstein files. Even after he knew 14-year-old girls had been raped,” said a former US marshal in one Ossoff Facebook ad. “He tried to tell us it was a hoax.”
But that ad is misleading.
Collins, along with all but nine House Republicans, voted against a procedural vote to release the files in July 2025, but he ultimately did vote for the release of the files in November of last year after Trump, reversing course, encouraged Republicans to vote for it. Collins also did not directly use the word “hoax,” but his team pointed to a Trump Truth Social post calling it the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” to deflect against a government shutdown.
Collins, in turn, has accused Ossoff of hypocrisy for accepting campaign donations from tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, a liberal donor and former Epstein associate who once visited Epstein’s private island. (Hoffman has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes and has expressed regret for his association with Epstein.) Collins then challenged Ossoff to return the money.
And in Ohio, more than $6 million has been spent on Epstein ads. Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost the seat in 2024, and Republican Sen. Jon Husted have both bent the truth to attack the other over campaign donations from “associates” of Epstein.
Brown has launched ad after ad attempting to tie Husted to Les Wexner, the Ohio-based billionaire and former Victoria’s Secret CEO who once employed Epstein as his money manager. The Epstein files indicated Wexner was at one time considered a potential co-conspirator to Epstein’s crimes by the FBI.
“Husted’s taken over $116,000 from one of Epstein’s closest friends and co-conspirators, and last year took a maximum donation from him just weeks before voting to block the release of the Epstein files.Jon Husted: Who’s he really working for?” the narrator of one anti-Husted ad read.
Wexner, who has denied any allegations of wrongdoing related to Epstein, contributed to Husted over a 20-year period. Husted also accepted a donation from Wexner as recently as the summer of 2025.
Husted voted against a release of the files by the attorney general in a procedural vote that September, though he later voted in November 2025 unanimously with the rest of the Senate to release the files after Trump, facing pressure, urged Republicans to vote in favor of it.
A spokesperson for Husted, Amy Natoce, stated the campaign donated more than $34,000 to anti-sex trafficking charities from available funds. Previous funds donated from Wexner were already spent and no longer accessible.
In turn, Husted responded with an ad of his own, calling Brown a liar: “Thirty-two years in DC made Sherrod Brown a liar. The truth: Jon Husted voted to release the Epstein files while Senator Brown took $100,000 from Epstein associates,” said the ad’s narrator.
The Husted campaign provided CNN with a breakdown of those alleged Brown donors with ties to Epstein, including Hoffman and former Harvard president Larry Summers.
But the list also includes donors who have tenuous connections to Epstein or whose connection predates Epstein’s mid-2000s arrest, such as billionaire philanthropist George Soros, hedge fund billionaire David E. Shaw and Hollywood agent Casey Wasserman.
In Texas, Democrat James Talarico’s campaign has spent at least $4.9 million on ads regarding a plea deal Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office made with an alleged child sex offender to serve just a total of one day in jail.
The ad’s narrator called the deal “an Epstein-style sweetheart deal for a well-connected child predator” before saying: “Ken Paxton’s corruption endangers our kids. We don’t need any more pedophile protectors in Washington.”
Epstein cut a secret and unprecedented deal with federal prosecutors nearly two decades ago that allowed him to avoid federal sex trafficking charges and serve just 13 months in a county prison on state prostitution charges, including one that involved a minor. Epstein continued to abuse young girls and women even while he was on house arrest, according to survivors.
Paxton’s office’s plea deal sparked outrage in the state earlier this year, even drawing a rebuke from the judge. The case initially resulted in a mistrial, leaving prosecutors to choose between retrying the case or agreeing to a plea deal with the offender.
Testifying in court can often retraumatize victims, particularly minors, and the victim and their family declined to do so again. That led the prosecutors to forge a plea deal, one the victim’s family signed off on.
Paxton defended the plea deal at a campaign event in late September. “It’s more important to make sure that this kid is protected than to get the verdict that we actually want. So, it’s so dishonest to present it any other way because that’s actually what happened,” he said.
The victim’s family has said publicly they are “tired of being used in this election.”
Epstein ads have recently flooded the airwaves in key Senate races in Iowa, Maine, Alaska and Kansas, too.
In Colorado, the family of Virginia Giuffre, the most high-profile Epstein abuse survivor who died by suicide in 2025, appeared in an attack ad from Democrat Jessica Killin against Republican Rep. Jeff Crank, who represents the state’s 5th Congressional District.
Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law say that Crank refused to meet with them as his constituents and that he voted to cover up the Epstein files.
“Virginia deserved better,” said Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s brother, addressing the camera. “Jeff Crank covered up Epstein’s crimes to protect Donald Trump.”
Crank did not sign onto a bipartisan petition to release the Epstein files and voted to block its consideration on the House floor. But he ultimately voted in favor of releasing them last November after Trump urged such a vote.
A spokesperson for Crank told CNN a Republican Congress released the files and called the ad’s claims “intentionally vague” and unsupported by the facts.
Ads distort candidates’ tenuous ties to Epstein
Some ads grossly distort a candidate’s ties to Epstein and indict anyone who has been mentioned in the files. Inclusion in the Epstein files does not inherently indicate wrongdoing.
In Nebraska, Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts painted independent Dan Osborn in multiple ads as a money-hungry politician cashing in on campaign checks. One ad said that Osborn was “funded by members of the Epstein class” and criticized him for fundraising with an “alleged Epstein trafficker.”
That ad name checks Dana Chasin, a Democratic operative whose name appears once within the files as part of a 2024 email in which a lawyer representing a woman said she had flown on Chasin’s “small prop plane” to Epstein’s New York home. The woman alleges she was later sexually abused by a billionaire investor associate of Epstein’s.
Chasin denied the allegations, telling Politico in February that “nothing pertaining to me in the March 2024 email” was true and that he had never met Epstein, Maxwell or those named associates.
CNN reached out to Chasin but did not receive a response.
The Osborn campaign cancelled a fundraising event with Chasin in February and said it donated money Chasin contributed to an anti-sex trafficking nonprofit. Conservative outlet The Daily Wire later reported it was still soliciting donations on the ActBlue platform for that event that month after the campaign shut it down.
A spokesperson for Osborn’s campaign called it “laughable” to tie Osborn to Epstein.
The Ricketts campaign responded by raising questions about when Osborn cancelled the fundraiser and whether they donated all of the money for that event.
In early October, Osborn’s campaign launched an ad showing two degrees of separation between Epstein, Ricketts’ donors and Ricketts. “If you want a senator who takes money from Epstein’s circle, Pete Ricketts is your guy,” the ad narrator said.
In New Hampshire, Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas has targeted Republican John E. Sununu, a former senator running once more, because “his name appears in the Epstein files and he denied ever attending an elite event in Doha, Qatar, that Jeffrey Epstein used for networking,” one Facebook ad from the Pappas campaign read.
Sununu’s own campaign later acknowledged he did go to Doha in 2001 and attended the World Economic Forum event there in 2010, which was referenced in emails found within the Epstein files. In a 2010 email, Epstein name checks that “John Sununu” has “good stories” in an email referring to the event, but it is unclear which John Sununu — either the former senator or the former governor — Epstein was referring to.
“As reported months ago, neither John nor his father ever met or communicated in any way with Boris Nikolich [sic] or Jeffrey Epstein. John believes Epstein was a despicable human being,” said campaign spokesperson Mike Schrimpf in a statement.
And in New Mexico, an ad from the group Accountable New Mexico targeted gubernatorial Democratic nominee Deb Haaland, claiming she accepted a ride on “one of Epstein’s private jets to a DC fundraiser. She took tens of thousands of dollars from Epstein businesses, and the campaign even went back and asked for more.”
Those claims are misleading, according to local media. In 2014, while Haaland was running as lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket, she took a flight to DC for a fundraiser, but not on one of Epstein’s private planes. Epstein’s company commissioned the flight after her running mate, then-New Mexico Attorney General Gary King, requested it, according to an email in the files. It is unclear whether Haaland knew that at the time.
The ad misrepresents an email sent to Epstein thanking him for his support, making it appear it was from Haaland. That email was from King.
The ad also claimed Haaland accepted thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Epstein’s companies. However, in New Mexico, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor — despite later running on the same ticket — run separate campaign committees through the general election. King accepted Epstein campaign donations.
Haaland released an ad of her own refuting the attack ad: “Fact checkers say Sam Bregman’s attacks against Deb Haaland are lies. Deb Haaland never flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane, never asked him for money, and supports a full investigation into his crimes,” a narrator said.
Not all of the ads regarding Epstein are attack ads, however. Some candidates are positioning themselves against the so-called “Epstein class,” a term first coined by California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, that has since become a succinct anti-establishment cry for Democrats as they seek to reclaim power this fall.
Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who faces another tight race for re-election, released an ad highlighting her vote to release the files: “I voted repeatedly to release every word and photo in the Epstein files, and I won’t let it go until they go to prison,” said Kaptur in the ad. “I don’t work for the ‘Epstein class’ — the selfish people that are selling us out. I work for you.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a top House Democrat, fundraised against the “Epstein class, the Mar-a-Lago elite” in a Facebook ad that launched in March. Similarly, House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia has launched ads on Facebook this year to fundraise based off his work on the committee.
Even in longshot House races against Republican leadership candidates are campaigning on the Epstein files.
Conrad Cable, a former English major turned vegetable farmer running in Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District, has launched a handful of ads on Facebook accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson of orchestrating a cover up over the files. As has Lauren Jewett, a Democrat running in Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District against Rep. Steve Scalise, who holds the number two spot in House Republican Leadership.
Self-styled Republican outsiders have also embraced this messaging. Paul Bondar, who unsuccessfully ran in Texas’ 32nd District congressional primary this spring, released an ad expressing his disgust with “the politicians stonewalling the Epstein files and not protecting kids.”
For Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who played a key role in forcing a vote on the release of the Epstein files, the issue became all-encompassing. His campaign touted his efforts in campaign ads. “I’m demanding and leading the charge to ensure the Epstein files, which we were promised would be released, actually are in full,” Massie said in one spot.
But that wasn’t enough to blunt a determined push by Trump and his allies to oust the iconoclastic conservative, as Massie lost in the primary to challenger Ed Gallrein after being targeted by more than $15 million in outside spending.
CNN’s Casey Tolan contributed to this story.