Democratic politicians across the country are denouncing the Trump administration’s mass deportation practices, condemning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a “paramilitary force” and raising concerns about the surveillance tools it is using to track immigrants. But some of those same politicians are spending millions with consulting firms owned by a company that has quietly partnered with Palantir, the contractor whose software powers ICE’s deportation operations.
The partnership, announced in November 2025 between marketing company Stagwell and Palantir, is aimed at building an AI-driven platform for advertising and audience targeting. Built on Palantir’s Foundry software, the system allows clients to combine their own data with Palantir’s analytics tools to identify and target potential customers, donors, or voters. It draws on behavioral and attitudinal data on Americans and allows clients to deploy AI agents to execute and adjust media campaigns.
Stagwell is a global marketing and communications conglomerate led by longtime Democratic pollster and former Clinton adviser Mark Penn. The company works for politicians, major corporations, and foreign governments, and includes political consulting shops aligned with both parties in its portfolio.
The platform has already been deployed at the company and is being rolled out across Stagwell’s network of advertising and consulting firms on an opt-in basis, according to the company’s website. That network includes two of the Democratic Party’s most prominent and high-paid political consulting operations: strategic communications and advertising firm SKDK and digital strategy shop Wavelength Strategy.
It is unclear whether any Democratic campaigns or committees have used the new Palantir-powered platform, and Stagwell has not disclosed which clients are using it. A Stagwell spokesperson declined to answer if the platform is being used for political campaigns, saying, “Stagwell agencies decide what tools they use.”
SKDK partner Jill Zuckman told Sludge after this article was published, “Neither firm uses the tool and the leaders of our firms make their own decisions about which tools to use for their clients.”
SKDK and Wavelength both have deep ties to Democratic campaigns and party committees. SKDK alone was paid more than $113 million by Democratic candidates, party committees, and super PACs during the 2024 election cycle, with its largest clients including Ruben Gallego’s Senate campaign, multiple state Democratic Party committees, and the Hakeem Jeffries-aligned House Majority PAC. Wavelength was paid about half that amount by Democratic groups including the Sherrod Brown campaign, the DSCC, and the DCCC.
Yet the partnership between their corporate parent and Palantir has drawn little attention inside Democratic politics, even as the company has become one of the party’s most politically toxic corporate allies.
