The Kamala Harris presidential campaign is hosting a huge concert in Madison, Wisc., on Wednesday night, and an untold multitude of University of Wisconsin students recently got an email blast touting the event in their inboxes.
Students at both the University of Wisconsin Madison and University of Wisconsin Whitewater, the latter of which is an hour drive from Madison, confirmed to The College Fix they received emails from the Harris-Walz campaign Monday.
The emails touted the concert, which will feature Gracie Abrams and Mumford & Sons.
“RSVP NOW: Kamala Harris is coming to UW-Madison for a concert + rally!” was the subject line of the Get-Out-The-Vote email. The sender was listed as “Wisconsin for Harris-Walz.”
“Vice President Harris is coming to UW-Madison on Wednesday. And, for one day only, we’re getting ready to rock the ballot box with the When We Vote, We Win concert and rally,” the email stated above an image of a smiling Harris.
At least one UW-Whitewater student who is voting for Donald Trump said it was “insulting and infuriating” to get the email that amounted to an ad for Democrats. She said she was also shocked the Harris-Walz campaign obtained her school email address.
“How did they get my email,” said the student, a 24-year-old senior whose initials are T.E. She asked not to be fully named for fear of retribution for speaking out.
“It was really surprising to see an email from candidate Kamala Harris to my school email when I know for a fact there hasn’t been any from the RNC or Donald Trump or anything like that,” she said.
“It’s not easy to find at all, my email address is actually pretty private,” she said. “The Wisconsin Democratic Party would not be able to get my email unless they specifically asked for it.”
In fact, the campaign might have asked the UW system. Or the campaign might have obtained the email addresses through a third-party data voter company, which has successfully obtained students’ private FERPA data nationwide. Using some sort of algorithm could have also been the culprit, some have speculated.
A UW-Whitewater spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment, but a UW-Madison spokesperson said student emails are available upon request.
“[It] is correct that student directory information, including students’ university-issued email addresses, is available upon request under the Wisconsin Public Records Law,” spokesman John Lucas told The Fix via email. “In addition, under university policy, registered student organizations are also able to send one message per semester to all students.”
Lucas also clarified that Wednesday’s political rally will be held in the city of Madison, not at UW-Madison, as was stated in the Harris email.
One UW-Madison student told The College Fix on Tuesday they’re not shocked to have received at least two emails from the Harris-Walz campaign in the last 10 days. Another one, sent last week, touted a visit to Madison from Barack Obama.
“The whole campus is liberal, so a partisan email to my inbox doesn’t upset me. However, I don’t want to see my information being sold or given to political parties for some partisan agenda,” said the student, who spoke to The College Fix on the condition of anonymity.
“There is a Tulsi Gabbard & RFK event and an Eric Hovde event in Madison tonight that I bet no one is getting emails about,” the student added. “I also can’t imagine UW-Madison selling information to team Trump to get students to RSVP for the rally in Milwaukee on Friday.”
College students are a voting bloc that traditionally swing heavily Democrat, so targeting them in swing states might not be surprising to some. But the tactic of obtaining college students’ emails en masse is raising anger and prompting questions among Republican students.
As The College Fix previously reported, College Republicans decried a similar move in Arizona after the Harris campaign texted 70,000 Arizona State University students, and a total of 150,000 students statewide, urging them to vote for her.
An ASU spokesperson told The Fix: “Under Arizona Public Records Law, ASU’s records are public unless there is a specific confidentiality requirement.”
Arizona College Republicans and at least one GOP state lawmaker have pledged to conduct an investigation to determine how and why the contact information was used for partisan politics.
T.E., the UW-Whitewater student, said she would like answers for her state, too.
“I am very worried my family information has been handed off to others simply because they’re linked to my student email or my contact information and the UW-Whitewater database,” she said, adding it was especially surprising since her school is working to crack down on spam.
In the end, she replied to the Harris-Walz campaign with a message of her own: “No thanks, I’m voting for America and not a lawyer who got her position through sexual corrosion and exploitation and falsely imprisons parents based on truancy.”
For good measure, she added to her reply the iconic picture of Trump hoisting his fist in the air after being shot in the ear by an assassin.
MORE: Students’ private FERPA data given to third-party voting firm
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