Shady group funded by Democrats is accused of using “dirty tricks” against Republicans in key elections

A shady group has recruited unsuspecting candidates to use as potential spoilers in the contested House of Representatives elections, the latest attempt by far-left groups to influence the Republican race.

Last year, a group called the Patriots Run Project recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts, where they could steal votes from Republicans in elections that will help determine which party controls the house next year, an Associated Press review found. In addition to two Iowa caucuses, the group recruited candidates in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. All six recruits described themselves as retired, disabled or both.

The group's activities provide little clues about its leadership, funding or motivation, but interviews, text messages, emails, business records and other documents reviewed by AP show that a significant amount of money was spent – and some of it was attributed to Democratic consulting firms.

“At the time, I thought, 'Well, it would be nice to be in Congress and work with President Trump,'” Joe Wiederien, 54, recalled in an interview outside the veterans' hospital in Des Moines, where he was being treated for a leaking gash on his head from previous brain surgery. “Now it looks like it was a dirty trick.”

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An ardent supporter of the former president Donald TrumpWiederien was registered as a Republican until a few months ago. After a severe stroke, he could no longer drive. He had never run for office. For a while, he was not allowed to vote because of a felony conviction.

But he came to the Iowa Capitol with well over the 1,726 petition signatures needed to be elected as a conservative alternative to first-term Republican Rep. Zach Nunn. After submitting the paperwork, he gave a thumbs-up across the room to a staffer he knew only as “Johnny.”

Thomas Bowman, 71 and disabled after a kidney transplant, believes he was likely recruited to run against Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota in an effort to split the conservative vote and help Craig win re-election in the suburban Minneapolis district. But the self-described constitutional conservative expressed gratitude for the free help in gathering signatures.

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Americans vote at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens polling station in Madison, Wisconsin, on November 8, 2022. After months of campaigning, Americans are deciding close races across the country in the midterm elections. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

“They put me on the ballot,” Bowman said. “If I had to do it all by myself, I couldn't do it.”

The Patriots Run Project's activities led to a complaint filed with the FEC by the conservative group Americans for Public Trust, alleging that the Patriots Run Project's “primary purpose” was to “influence federal elections” and that the organization had thus violated campaign finance law by failing to register as a political committee.

This would force the group to file reports that would likely reveal who is running and funding the operation and what the motivations behind it are.

The only concrete identifying feature listed on the group's website is a mailbox at a UPS store in Washington, DC.

“It's clear that this shady conspiracy with ties to the Democrats is a threat to democracy, yet every single Democratic candidate who benefits from the conspiracy refuses to condemn it,” Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Fox News Digital. “If they're really serious, they can't stay silent.”

US Capitol Dome, Washington, DC (AP)

The Patriots Run Project operated a number of pro-Trump sites and published ads that used apocalyptic rhetoric to attack established politicians from both parties while urging conservatives to run in November.

“We need American patriots like YOU to stand with President Trump for freedom and wrest control from the globalist elites by running for political office,” one of the ads says.

After they were recruited, they communicated with a handful of agents via text, email and phone. Face-to-face contact was limited. The Patriots Run Project advised them on which forms to fill out and how to submit the required documentation.

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In at least three campaigns, pro-ballot signatures were circulated by a Nevada company that works closely with the Democratic consulting firm Sole Strategies, according to documents including text messages and a draft contract, as well as the firm's co-founder. In Iowa, another Democratic firm conducted a poll testing attacks on Nunn and portraying Wiederien as the true conservative.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of the House Democrats, said the organization had no knowledge of or involvement in the operation. The House Majority PAC, the Democrats' expensive congressional super PAC, was also not involved, a spokesman said.

Supporting extreme candidates is nothing new for Democrats. During the midterm elections, the left funded ads for fringe Republican candidates in the hope that they would be easier to defeat in the general election.

Rich Edson of the Associated Press and Fox News Digital contributed to this report.