Washington State’s Public Disclosure Commission opened a formal investigation and held an initial hearing yesterday, Wednesday, August 12th, 2026, concerning Washingtonians For Ethical Government’s complaint that Brian Heywood’s Let’s Go Washington violated Washington’s Fair Campaign Practices Act (FCPA).
This isn’t the first time Let’s Go Washington has acted with disregard for state laws meant to provide transparency and build trust in our political system. The committee was fined $20,000 for ethics violations in 2024.
On May 12th, Washingtonians for Ethical Government, a nonprofit campaign and government watchdog organization, filed a complaint with Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) concerning violations of the FCPA by Heywood’s Let’s Go Washington for failing to disclose advertising provided by right wing paid political content creator Brandi Kruse.
The PDC will gather documents, interview witnesses, and can subpoena records as part of the investigation. The PDC carries out FCPA rulemaking and interprets and enforces campaign finance and disclosure laws found in Title 29B RCW and WAC 390 including regulating political advertising.
According to the complaint, there have been at least 159 instances of political advertising by commercial advertiser Brandi Kruse on behalf of Let’s Go Washington in support of two of its 2026 ballot initiatives: IL26-638 and IL26-001. Let’s Go Washington also failed to report at least two instances of in-kind contributions in the form of Kruse’s appearances at political rallies and likely in-kind contributions from one of Brian Heywood’s other organizations, Project 42 and Future 42.
Pam Stuart, Communications Liaison for Washingtonians For Ethical Government, issued the following statement:
I’m happy to hear the PDC is taking this complaint seriously by moving forward with a formal investigation, and I look forward to their findings. Paid influencers like Brandi Kruse are stoking distrust in government and driving voter apathy, something we cannot afford at a time when democracy in America is under assault.
The public has the right to know that the information they are hearing or seeing is actually political advertising, who is paying for that advertising, and how much was paid. More than 150 times, Kruse provided political advertising that urged voters to sign Let’s Go Washington’s initiative petitions, appealed to voters for support, attacked groups opposed to the initiatives, acted as a spokesperson for the campaign at political rallies and events, and otherwise advertised Let’s Go Washington, IL26-001, IL26-638, and Brian Heywood on her platforms.
Let’s Go Washington hid Kruse’s political advertising from the public, in violation of state law, and must be held accountable. If the PDC decides that these activities fall under the Fair Campaign Practices Act’s media exemption, in spite of the fact that Kruse has repeatedly told the public that she is ‘not a journalist,’ then we will be calling on them and legislators to update our rules and laws to reflect the current state of online creator advertising, and to improve transparency in political advertising for Washington voters.
One issue for the PDC to decide is whether Kruse’s platform, which is paid by advertisers Future 42 – one of Heywood’s political groups – is not a news publisher and therefore not exempted from the PDC’s transparency requirements for political advertisers.
In its defense, Let’s Go Washington claims she is a journalist, however, Kruse herself says otherwise:
“I’m not a journalist.” – Brandi Kruse, July 6, 2024
“Actually I tell people all the time I’m not a journalist.” – Brandi Kruse, March 26, 2024
“Correct, I’m not a journalist. I’m a commentator. Also correct that I donated to @reichert4gov
– you should too if you want to steer our state back toward sanity!” – Brandi Kruse, February 17, 2024
WFEG argues that Kruse’s 159 instances of advocacy for Let’s Go Washington’s campaigns should have been reported as in-kind contributions worth as much as $1.25 million, as required by Washington State law.
Undisclosed political advertising via podcasts, content creators, and influencers is a growing transparency and accountability issue. Advertiser spending on podcasters and influencers is expected to reach $13.7 billion in 2027, and that includes tens of millions spent by political campaigns, candidates, and dark money groups on podcasters and social media influencers to promote their interests.
Political advertising on influencers has become so commonplace that in 2023 California passed rules requiring content creators to disclose their political advertisers on their posts and in their podcasts.
