It looks like we’re reaching a new level of desperation from the Democrats as they scramble to find support for Kamala Harris in the final stretch of the 2024 election. The latest twist? The porn industry has thrown its hat into the ring, aligning itself with Harris in an effort to sway swing-state voters. In a move that screams last-ditch effort, ads will reportedly run on porn sites in crucial states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina, pushing the message of “hands off my porn” to rally voters to Harris’s side.

According to reports from The Post Millennial, this campaign is banking on making porn a single-issue topic for voters, particularly men, in an attempt to shift attitudes in Harris’s favor. The ads argue that Republicans are out to “criminalize porn,” painting the GOP as religious zealots determined to ruin people’s right to access adult entertainment.

Let’s break down what’s really happening here. The data shows that a significant percentage of men—44 percent of those aged 18-29 and 57 percent of men aged 30-49—watched pornography in the last month, according to the Survey Centre on American Life. The strategy seems pretty clear: the industry is betting that by appealing to this demographic, they can make protecting access to porn a key issue that influences their vote.

Of course, statements from figures like director Casey Calvert and actor Holly Randall only add fuel to this narrative. They’re positioning the fight to preserve access to pornography as a stand against a conservative agenda aimed at suppressing women’s rights and limiting personal freedoms. The problem here isn’t just the industry’s vested interest in protecting its revenue streams—it’s the fact that they’re attempting to make addiction and dependency on their content a campaign strategy.

The Harris campaign’s willingness to lean into this support shows just how desperate they are. They’re essentially aligning themselves with an industry that has faced multiple scandals over the years, including accusations of hosting videos involving minors and victims of sex trafficking, as reported by The New York Times in 2020. Let’s not forget that sites like PornHub were forced to delete millions of videos from unverified users in response to those accusations, and even lost partnerships with major credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard as a result.

The porn industry’s influence has been declining in some states due to increased regulations. Texas, for example, passed House Bill 1181, requiring viewers to provide government-issued ID to access adult content, to protect minors from easy access.

Unsurprisingly, PornHub responded by blocking access in Texas, claiming that this kind of regulation would just drive traffic to less regulated sites. But that response doesn’t change the fact that the industry is on the defensive as states crack down on its practices to protect the mental and emotional development of minors.

For Harris to be leaning on this kind of support from the porn industry says more about her campaign’s flailing efforts than it does about the Republicans. The science on the negative effects of pornography on young brains is well-documented, with studies showing how it can alter neural pathways, impact impulse control, and lead to desensitization of the brain’s dopamine response system. In short, it’s not something that should be trivialized or treated as just another political talking point.

We don’t let minors buy alcohol or tobacco because of the damage it can do to their developing bodies, so it’s completely reasonable to require ID checks to prevent them from accessing content that could have similar effects on their developing minds. The porn industry is hoping to exploit its grip on a sizable portion of the population to sway votes for Harris, but if this is the kind of base-level addiction they’re counting on to win, it really highlights just how out of ideas the Democrats are at this point.