Conservative group mistakenly thanks the wrong Rep. Evans for backing Trump’s tax cuts
The ads thanking Philadelphia Democrat Dwight Evans ran in Colorado, home to U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican who voted for the bill.
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans is getting thank-yous 1,700 miles outside of his Philadelphia district for voting for a bill he actually opposed.
A conservative dark money group, the Center for Individual Freedom, last month began running ads on Meta and Instagram thanking lawmakers for voting for “Trump’s tax cuts,” one of many provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill, which also included cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. President Donald Trump signed the sweeping legislation into law last month.
But the group appears to have been a little sloppy in its research.
One ad thanks U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat who voted against the bill— and who railed against the legislation in the days leading up to its passage. The ad is running digitally in Colorado, the home state of U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican who supported the bill.
The messaging war on Trump’s signature legislation has been in full force with outside groups running trying to persuade voters of the cases for or against the bill.
The ad, which started running July 17 and received an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 impressions, says “Pennsylvania Thanks You.” But according to Meta’s ad library, it ran online in Colorado.
“I want Philadelphians to know that I voted NO on the Trump-Republican budget bill, both in the full House and in the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee,” Evans — the Philadelphia one — said to The Inquirer.
“...And for the record, I’m also not the retired Boston Red Sox player — he’s a different Dwight Evans.”
The mix-ups don’t end there. The Center for Individual Freedom, which did not return a request for comment, also ran an ad thanking U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Bucks County Republican who was one of just two GOP representatives to vote against the bill on final passage.
It’s unclear if that ad was also a mistake or an intentional misrepresentation of Fitzpatrick’s vote to connect him to the tax cuts, a broadly popular part of the legislation.
Fitzpatrick, who defended his vote against the bill, citing harmful Medicaid cuts, did not respond to a request for comment on the ad. He voted for an earlier version of the bill when it passed the House by one vote in May.
Over the past few weeks lawmakers on their August recess have been blanketing social media with messaging about the legislation. Several held events related to the bill.
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R., Pa.) touted how the bill could benefit farmers at an event at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau in Pottsville, where Americans for Prosperity, a conservative policy group, gave away gift cards to the farm store.
U.S. Reps. Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie, two freshman Pennsylvania Republicans, teamed up with House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan to tour manufacturing plants in their districts, where they highlighted “critical wins for workers in the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat who represents Chester and Berks Counties, stopped at a dental office in Pottstown and a trauma hospital in Reading, where she decried the damaging effects the Medicaid cuts could have.