A shadowy group is recruiting Republican candidates to potentially disrupt contested House races, the latest effort by left-wing groups to gain an edge in Republican races.
For the past year, a group known as the Patriots Run Project has been recruiting Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in crucial swing districts, where they could take votes away from Republicans in elections that will help determine which party wins. controls the house An Associated Press review found that elections are due next year. In addition to the two races in Iowa, the group recruited candidates in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. All six recruits described themselves as retired, disabled or both.
The group’s operations offer few clues about its management, financing or motivation. But interviews, text messages, emails, business filings and other documents reviewed by the AP show that a significant amount of money has been spent — and some of it is tied to Democratic consulting firms.
“At the time, I was thinking, ‘Well, it would be great to be in Congress and work with President Trump,’” Joe Vidarian, 54, said in an interview outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Des Moines, where he was receiving treatment for a leaking incision on his head from a previous brain surgery. “It seems like a dirty trick now.”
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A voter casts a ballot at a polling station on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Fairfax, Virginia. (Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Strong supporter of the former president Donald TrumpVidarian was registered as a Republican until a few months ago. A debilitating stroke left him unable to drive. He had never run for office. For a time, he couldn’t vote because of a felony conviction.
But he arrived here last month. Iowa The first-time Republican arrived at the Capitol with more than the 1,726 petition signatures needed to qualify for the ballot as a conservative alternative to Rep. Jack Nunn. After filing the paperwork, he gave a thumbs-up to a worker in the room he knew only as “Johnny.”
Thomas Bowman, 71, who is disabled after a kidney transplant, said he believed he was possibly recruited to run against Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota in order to split the conservative vote and help Craig win re-election in her suburban Minneapolis district. But the self-described constitutional conservative expressed gratitude for the free help in gathering signatures.
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Americans will vote at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens polling station in Madison, Wisconsin, on November 8, 2022. After months of campaigning by candidates, Americans are voting in midterm elections to decide close races across the country. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
“They put me on the ballot,” Bowman said. “If I had to do this all by myself, I couldn’t have done it.”
Patriots Run Project’s actions have resulted in a complaint filed with the FEC by conservative group Americans for Public Trust, alleging that Patriots Run Project’s “principal purpose” was “to influence federal elections” and that the organization thus violated campaign finance law by not registering as a political committee.
This would force the group to file a report revealing who is managing and funding the operation, and what the purpose is behind it.
The only concrete identifying detail listed on the group’s website is a mailbox inside a UPS store in Washington, D.C.
“It’s clear this shady scheme involving Democrats is a threat to democracy, yet every single Democrat candidate who stands to benefit from this plot has refused to denounce it,” Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Fox News Digital. “If they truly mean what they say, they cannot remain silent.”
US Capitol dome, Washington, DC (AP)
The Patriots Run Project operated several pro-Trump pages and ran ads that used apocalyptic rhetoric to attack establishment politicians from both parties, while also urging conservatives to turn out for Trump in November.
One such ad said, “We need American patriots like you to stand up for freedom with President Trump and take back control from the global elite by contesting his election.”
Once recruited, they communicated with a handful of activists via text messages, emails and phone calls. Personal contact was limited. The Patriots Run Project advised them on what forms to fill out and how to file the necessary paperwork.
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In at least three races, petition signatures to qualify for the ballot were circulated by a Nevada company that works in conjunction with Democratic consulting firm Soul Strategies, including text messages and draft contracts as well as documents from the firm’s co-founder. In Iowa, a different Democratic firm conducted a survey testing attacks on Nunn while presenting Vidarian as the true conservative.
A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, said the organization had no knowledge of or involvement in the effort. The House Majority PAC, the Democrats’ big-spending congressional super PAC, is also not involved, the spokesperson said.
Promoting extremist candidates is nothing new for Democrats. Leftists during midterm elections funded advertising For fringe Republican candidates, the expectation is that they will be easier to defeat in the general election.
The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Rich Edson contributed to this report
