global 4.6
October 18, 2026 · Newsletter
Corrupt Rutherford using Kristi Noem's corrupt ad firm.
Remember those taxpayer-funded Homeland Security ads starring Kristi Noem? The one with her on horseback at Mount Rushmore? You paid for that.
Here’s what we’ve learned so far:
DHS spent $220 million on ads featuring then-Secretary Noem, using no-bid contracts the department justified by citing “urgency.” [1]
The biggest contract, worth $143 million, went to Safe America Media, a company incorporated seven days before it got the deal. It has no apparent office or website, and its registered address is the home of a longtime Republican political operative. [2]
Safe America Media then reportedly hired Smart Media Group to place the ads. A Smart Media subsidiary was paid more than $329 million by President Trump’s super PAC in 2024. [3]
Senators from both parties grilled Noem over it. Republican Sen. John Kennedy questioned why the contracts were never bid out and two senators have since demanded Smart Media’s records. [4]
Now here’s where this scandal comes home to Northeast Florida.
On July 27, John Rutherford’s campaign paid Smart Media Group $151,025 for a media buy, a few weeks before his August primary. [5]
And John Rutherford sits on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. That’s the panel that writes the DHS budget and is supposed to keep an eye on how DHS spends your money.
So let’s get this straight:
The firm currently under investigation for profiting off Kristi Noem’s $143 million taxpayer-financed no-bid contract scam is the exact same firm John Rutherford is now paying to get himself re-elected. And he’s one of the people in charge of overseeing the department that handed out the deal.
Even a Republican senator from Louisiana asked the hard questions. Has John Rutherford asked a single one?
We’d ask him ourselves. But he won’t debate us, he won’t hold town halls, and he ghosted us at the Tiger Bay Club candidate forum. When we asked him to his face why he won’t debate, he said, “because I don’t have to.”
Folks, nobody’s saying it’s illegal to hire a media firm. But when the person who’s supposed to watch the money is doing business with the people getting the money, who exactly is watching out for you?
That’s the cost of corruption. While $220 million in taxpayer money went to ads about a cabinet secretary, Florida insurers are lining up to raise health insurance rates again for 2027. [6]
Washington works just fine for the insiders. It should work for you.
I’m an engineer. I follow the data, and I ask questions until I get real answers. That’s the job. In Congress, I’ll ask them every time, no matter whose name is on the contract.
We have 16 days left, and this is where you come in.
John Rutherford can drop $151,000 on a single media buy. We can’t match him dollar for dollar, and we don’t have to. We have something he doesn’t: neighbors who are willing to knock doors, make calls, and talk to voters face to face.
Every dollar we raise from here to Election Day goes straight into voter outreach: knocking doors in Arlington and Mandarin, calling seniors in St. Augustine, texting younger voters at the Beaches, and getting the truth in front of the persuadable voters who will decide this race.
This campaign has been built on more than 1,000 donations, most of them from right here in our district. No one is buying this campaign. You are building it.
The solution is simple: It’s time to repeal & replace John Rutherford.
John Rutherford is counting on nobody connecting these dots before November 3. Let’s make sure every voter in this district does.
Let’s show John Rutherford the door!
In solidarity — Rachel Grage