A group with ties to Democrats deceptively recruited third-party candidates to draw votes away from Republicans in pivotal House races, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The conservative watchdog group Americans for Public Trust filed the complaint that the group Patriots Run Project is violating campaign finance law by failing to file as a political committee and failing to file federal election disclosure reports.
The group is not registered with the FEC or as a nonprofit with the IRS. It worked to recruit conservative candidates through Facebook and other means and then helped collect signatures to qualify them to appear as third-party candidates on the November ballot in competitive races in five states.
Little is known about the group, which has no public website or phone number. It operates out of a P.O. box in the District of Columbia.
“There are many different layers of deception going on here. We’ve got some very clear election laws being broken, and then probably a whole other myriad of state and federal laws that are being broken going on,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust. “At a minimum, a very minimum, the FEC needs to take a second look at this group.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said the scheme is impacting races across the country. He called it a form of election interference and blamed the Democratic Party, even though it can’t be directly tied to top party officials.
“This is dirty politics. It’s immoral, it’s unethical, it’s illegal, it must be stopped,” he said.
The Associated Press was the first to report on the group, interviewing a disabled veteran who was recruited unknowingly to draw votes away from Republicans.
“At that time I was thinking, well, it would be nice to be in Congress and get to work with President Trump,” Joe Wiederien, 54, a disabled veteran who Patriots Run Project recruited to run in an Iowa House race, told the AP. “It looks like it’s a dirty trick now.”
Mr. Wiederien was recruited to run against first-term lawmaker Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican who won in 2022 by 2,000 votes.
Mr. Wiederien has since withdrawn his candidacy.
According to the FEC complaint, Patriots Run Project also recruited candidates to run in swing district races in Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana and Virginia.
The AP said all six people recruited were retired, disabled or both.
“The scariest part about it is it seems to have some political strategy behind it,” Ms. Sutherland said. “They were not just picking random House races across the country. If you take a look at the races that they were targeting, they were key U.S. House races that are very competitive this year and very well could determine who is in control of the U.S. House next year. So it is very deceptive, but also shows a high level of sophistication and who they targeted.”
House Republicans control the majority with only a handful of votes and the outcome in November is considered too close to predict.
The group recruited Robert Reid Jr. to run as an independent in Virginia’s 2nd District, where Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican, seeks a second term. She won narrowly in 2022, beating Democrat Rep. Elaine Luria by 10,000 votes.
Ms. Kiggans called the Patriots Run Project’s recruitment “shady and deceitful interference.”
Mr. Reid remains on the ballot, although he does not appear to have a campaign website. He did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.
“They know that they cannot beat me in a fair fight straight up on my record and policy priorities, so they resort to unethical and shady tactics like this,” Ms. Kiggans said.
Facebook has removed Patriots Run Project from its platforms.
According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Patriots Run Project operated as a network on 26 domains, 10 websites, 15 pages on Facebook and 13 linked Facebook groups.
According to ISD, the group said it represented “patriots … dedicated to stopping the uniparty of corporate elitist politicians who are selling out America to the Anti-Christian Communist left.”
It sought candidates who would mirror the Trump agenda on gun rights, border security and combating election fraud.
In Montana, the group persuaded Dennis Hayes to run as a Libertarian candidate in the 1st Congressional District race, where Rep. Ryan Zinke is seeking another term. The group paid Mr. Hayes $1,340 to cover his filing fee, according to the FEC complaint. Mr. Hayes remains on the ballot. He did not respond to an inquiry from The Washington Times.
Ms. Sutherland said there are ties to Democrats, but the trail is murky.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House fundraising arm for the party, said they have no connection to Patriots Run Project.
In three races, a Nevada company, Common Sense America, helped gather signatures to qualify candidates for the ballot. The company is associated with the Democratic consulting firm Sole Strategies. Neither company responded to an inquiry from The Times.
The AP found that the ballot signature collection efforts were funded in part by Carolyn Cohen, a Nyack, New York, philanthropist and registered Democrat who backs liberal causes. Polling targeting Mr. Nunn in Iowa and portraying Mr. Wiederien as the conservative alternative was also carried out by a Democratic firm.
Mr. Nunn slammed the scheme on Capitol Hill, telling reporters Democratic operatives recruited and targeted Mr. Wiederien, even impersonating members of Congress and “deceiving him into believing he was in direct conversations with Donald Trump” to lure him into running.
Mr. Nunn said Democrats have said they can’t win in his district “unless they have a spoiler on the ballot.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.