A pair of Democratic senators have launched an investigation into a $220 million ad campaign promoting the Department of Homeland Security, which heavily featured the embattled former secretary, Kristi Noem.
Pressure on Noem to answer questions about how she and her top aides are tied to the firms contracted for the ad campaign has been building for months — especially after reports suggested that one firm offered a multimillion-dollar contract was incorporated just days before winning its bid.
Months after the ad campaign launched, Noem was finally confronted about the controversy during an explosive Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where she was grilled about her department’s decision to bypass a competitive bidding process and award contracts to firms that she and her senior advisers have personal ties to.
Sens. Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal sent out a series of letters Tuesday, asking for answers and clarification from three executives of companies tied to the effort: Jay Connaughton of People Who Think LLC, Benjamin Yoho of The Strategy Group Company and Michael McElwain of Safe America Media LLC.
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Though questions about the campaign and its bidding process created a headache for Noem, her real problems began after she told senators that President Donald Trump approved the ad campaign personally — which reports suggested was one of the reasons she was ousted.
In November, ProPublica reported that the CEO of Strategy Group, a political consulting firm, is married to then-DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. The firm also worked with Noem during her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign, and top Noem adviser Corey Lewandowski has worked extensively with the firm.
In an X post last week, Strategy Group stated it “never had a contract with DHS,” but did sign a subcontract with Safe America, for which it was paid $226,137 for five film shoots, 45 produced video advertisements and six produced radio advertisements.
In the letter to Yoho, Blumenthal and Welch requested a copy of the subcontract, any invoices connected to the ad campaign and any correspondence between the firm and DHS about the ad campaign.
The senators said they were requesting this information “to better understand the relationships between the Strategy Group, Safe America Media, and DHS political leadership, and to better understand how $143 million in taxpayer dollars were spent.”
People Who Think, a Louisiana-based advertising firm, was awarded a separate $77 million no-bid contract to work on the same ad campaign. In the letter to Connaughton, who was previously a campaign adviser for Trump, the senators noted his relationship with Lewandowski. They also requested any contracts, invoices and correspondence in relation to the ad campaign.
In the letter to McElwain, the senators raised concerns about the legitimacy of his firm.
“According to public records, Safe America Media is registered to your home address and was incorporated just seven days before it signed a non-competitive contract worth $143 million for the production of several advertisements starring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. As far as we can tell, Safe America Media has no office, no website, and no social media presence,” the senators wrote, also questioning the relationship between Safe America Media, Noem and the other firms.
In each letter, the senators asked that all information and documents requested be handed over to them by Friday, March 13.
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