Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for governor of New York, directed more than $4.2 million in campaign funds to an advertising agency that produced the 2017 election campaign for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The campaign of Blakeman, who is Jewish, also paid a political fundraising company founded by a convicted fraudster, the Daily Mail can report.
Filings submitted to the New York State Board of Elections show that Blakeman’s campaign spent more than $4.2 million on online advertising and related services from Harris Media.
Harris Media handled the AfD’s 2017 federal advertising effort, including material that depicted then-Chancellor Angela Merkel as a terrorist, according to DER SPIEGEL.
A Harris Media employee was also reported to have suggested the slogan “Germany for Germans” to the AfD. A party staffer rejected the phrase, saying it was excessively nationalistic.
The agency’s work for the AfD came during the same year that Björn Höcke, the party’s leader in Thuringia, delivered a controversial speech attacking Germany’s approach to remembering the Holocaust.
Höcke described Berlin’s Holocaust memorial as a “memorial of shame” and called for a “180-degree turn in the politics of memory.” Alice Weidel, who is now the AfD’s co-leader, later said that his remarks echoed the vocabulary of Adolf Hitler.
Harris Media’s past clients have also included Britain’s UKIP and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in Israel. In the United States, the firm has worked for Senator Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and the pro-Trump Right for America PAC.
Republican Bruce Blakeman paid Harris Media more than $4.2 million for “fundraising” and “online ads.” The agency previously proposed a slogan for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) that some party members considered too nationalistic
The Trump-backed candidate also paid more than $11,600 in 800 separate installments to the fundraising company founded by convicted fraudster Jack Daly, who admitted to mail fraud and lying to the Federal Election Commission after targeting elderly voters and veterans
Daly received a four-month prison sentence and two years of supervised release in 2023
Between April and October 2026, Blakeman’s campaign paid more than $11,600 to Better Mousetrap Digital in nearly 800 separate transactions listed as “fundraising.”
Better Mousetrap Digital was established in 2023 by Jack Daly. That same year, Daly was sentenced to four months in prison and two years of supervised release for creating a fraudulent political action committee, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Daly’s PAC collected more than $1.6 million by telling donors their contributions would convince a Wisconsin sheriff to seek a seat in the US Senate.
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Investigators determined that Daly falsely implied Sheriff David Clarke was likely to run and misrepresented his own involvement in the PAC.
“Daly targeted vulnerable victims, including a woman with Alzheimer’s and elderly veterans,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin said in a press release.
Daly pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to make false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
Harris Media worked for the AfD during the same year Höcke gave a speech that Alice Weidel said resembled the “vocabulary of Adolf Hitler.” Blakeman, who is Jewish, nevertheless hired the agency for his own campaign after its previous work with Germany’s far-right party
Kathy Hochul is seeking re-election as New York governor on November 3. The Cook Political Report currently rates the gubernatorial contest as leaning Democratic
Daly attempted to overturn his conviction last year, arguing that his former attorney had given him “substantively incorrect advice.” Judge JP Stadtmueller rejected the motion. Daly’s supervised release ended in June.
Better Mousetrap advertises itself as ‘the premier digital fundraising consulting firm for Republicans’ with experience ‘spanning from state house campaigns to the White House.’
It also lists Donald Trump for President, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Republican National Committee among its clients.
Reached by phone, a spokesperson at Blakeman’s campaign headquarters told the Daily Mail they don’t have ‘anything to say.’ The Daily Mail also emailed the campaign for comment.
Blakeman trails Hochul by 14 points in the latest Quinnipiac poll ahead of the November 3 election and the Cook Political Report still ranks New York’s gubernatorial battle as Democratic leaning.
New York State Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick told the Daily Mail: ‘Bruce Blakeman paying millions to these people to craft his campaign message fits right in with his never-ending embrace of far-right extremists.
‘Blakeman has more than earned his “100% MAGA” title, and New Yorkers are about to reject him for it.’
The Daily Mail contacted Harris Media, Better Mousetrap and Daly’s attorney for comment.