A group tied to Democratic consulting firms has been bankrolling an effort to stock ballots with pro-former President Donald Trump candidates disguised as independents in an effort to siphon votes away from Republicans .
The Patriots Run Project ran more than $48,000 worth of advertisements on Facebook in an effort to recruit right-leaning candidates in the 2024 election cycle in six swing seat elections. The group has worked with at least six people to get their names on the ballot, spending thousands of dollars on collecting signatures, filing fees, and polling.
Democrats ran a similar scheme in 2022, propping up the more extreme candidates in Republican primaries in order to force more mainstream and centrist candidates out of the race and make it easier for Democratic candidates to win the general election. Two years later, the strategy appears to have been refined even further.
At least one of the candidates supported by the project has said it's apparent he was made to be a pawn as part of a "dirty trick," according to an investigation conducted by the Associated Press.
The secretive group, which is not listed as a nonprofit organization with the IRS and is registered as a political committee with the Federal Election Commission, has had some luck getting candidates on the ballot in races in Iowa and Minnesota.
Joe Wiederien, a Trump supporter turned GOP challenger to Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), made it onto the ballot in Iowa but later pulled himself off over contention when he realized what was happening.
“At that time, I was thinking, well, it would be nice to be in Congress and get to work with President Trump,” Wiederien told the outlet about the project's efforts to get him on the ballot. “It looks like it’s a dirty trick now.”
The Patriots Run Project wasn't always so successful, though.
Army veteran Gary Bera was recruited to run for office for Rep. Don Bacon's (R-NE) seat after completing an online survey, the outlet reported . Operatives from the Patriots Run Project assisted him every step of the way, from picking up to filing paperwork to declare his candidacy to spending $3,300 for collecting signatures. However, operatives fell short of securing his name on the ballot.
The Patriots Run Project recruited candidates in swing districts in Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana, Virginia, and Iowa.
In three of these races, operatives from the Patriots Run Project worked with Common Sense America, a group with close ties to the Democratic consulting firm Sole Strategies, to collect petition signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot.
Common Sense America’s company disclosure filing in Colorado lists the phone number for the co-founder of Sole Strategies.
“We work very closely with Common Sense America,” Zee Cohen-Sanchez, executive director of Sole Strategies, told the outlet.
Over the past four years, Sole Strategies has earned $1.8 million from working with Democratic candidates.
The Patriots Run Project pages on Facebook have been taken down after the Center for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based watchdog, found in June that the ads violated the site’s disclaimer standards and were deceptive to users.
Jason Torchinsky, a former Department of Justice official, said it's possible that criminal activity has occurred. In Iowa, it's illegal to defraud voters of “a fair and impartially conducted election process.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says it had no knowledge of the scheme.
Cross-party support for third-party and independent candidates as a way to siphon votes away from major party candidates has been a regular feature of the 2024 election.
Democrats worked hard to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off ballots in states where they feared he would eat into support for Vice President Kamala Harris. Likewise, Trump allies have fought to help Cornel West get or stay on ballots to try to split the Democratic vote.
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However, the similarities aren't exact. The Patriots Run Project paints itself as a Trump-allied group when, in reality, it is an effort by Democratic operatives to regain control of the House.
"Democrats' shady scheme is a threat to Democracy," said Will Reinert, the Republican Congressional Committee's National spokesman.
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