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FIRST ON FOX: The campaign of New York City’s Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has dished out millions to the firm of a key media strategist that helped shape the media-buying strategy of former President Barack Obama’s campaigns.
Over the past few months, campaign finance records show the Mamdani team has disbursed over $3 million to the Los Angeles-based Debra Schommer Media Group for expenditures that were described as going toward television ads, TV production and digital advertising.
Schommer has more than 30 years of experience in the media planning and buying field, according to her website bio, and lists herself as a previous director of media planning and buying for AKPD Message and Media, a consulting firm started by Obama confidantes David Axelrod and David Plouffe.
Schommer’s website also touts her work managing and forming media strategies for political campaigns, including the presidential campaigns of Obama and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020.
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“As the Director of Media Planning and Buying for David Axelrod, since the inception of Axelrod and Associates (which later formed AKPD Message and Media), Debra built the department, led, managed, and worked on media strategies for Democratic candidates – Local, State, and Presidential (including Obama and Buttigieg), Independent Expenditures, and Advocacy campaigns,” her bio reads.
“She made sure every dollar we spent counted,” Axelrod wrote in support of Schommer’s work. “She’s the best!”
Schommer’s archived bios from 2009-2015 on AKPD’s website listed her as the director of media planning/buying and later the vice president of media planning, describing her as “a seasoned and skilled expert” and saying she has an “impeccable reputation in the media community along with being known for her passion and commitment to politics.”
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In addition to Plouffe and Axelrod, an archived AKPD website says Mike Donilon, a decades-long advisor to former President Joe Biden and Democratic strategist, was a partner at the firm.
Reports from 2008 said AKPD had received over $2 million from the Obama campaigns since 2005 and played an instrumental role in marketing Obama to voters. AKPD would later make headlines the following year after it was revealed it was one of two firms “working on the $24 million in ads” selling the ObamaCare push.
“Mamdani and his team will throw millions at voters to run from his positions,” Targeted Victory Executive VP Matt Gorman told Fox News Digital. “Consultants can work wonders, but they’re not miracle workers. A communist is still a communist.”
In addition to Mamdani, a Fox News Digital review found that her firm played an instrumental role in crafting television ad buys for far-left “Squad” Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, who were both defeated last year during their Democratic primaries. Both ex-lawmakers were vocal about defunding the police, along with other radical proposals like reparations, and their campaigns dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars to Schommer’s firm, according to the FEC website.
Mamdani’s surge to the forefront of the political landscape has sparked divisions within the Democratic Party between moderates who have opposed his socialist platform and the progressive wing led by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Mamdani.
In the wake of Mamdani’s primary victory last month, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) highlighted that “this movement is bigger than one person, election, city, or organization.”
“We encourage all people inspired by the Zohran campaign to join their local DSA or YDSA chapter and get involved so we can continue to fight alongside Zohran and DSA elected officials across the country to create the future we all deserve,” they added in a statement.
Fast-forward to Wednesday, and DSA leaders are apparently mulling running primary challengers against Jeffries as well as other House Democrats whose districts are in New York City, including Reps. Ritchie Torres, Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman and Yvette Clarke.
However, Democratic strategist Andre Richardson, a top Jeffries political advisor, pushed back hard and told CNN that they will “teach” Mamdani’s “Team Gentrification” allies “a painful lesson on June 23, 2026.”
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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