An array of mysterious Democratic and Republican-linked PACs are working to support Libertarian and Green Party candidates in a ploy to siphon votes away from each other’s parties.
Civic Truth Action, a newly established super PAC with links to Democratic operatives, is distributing pro-life messaging with the aim of taking votes away from former President Donald Trump in North Carolina and directing them toward conservative third-party candidate Randall Terry, the New York Times reported. Republicans are playing a similar game, launching a super PAC called Badger Values in Wisconsin aimed at boosting Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein.
“Democrats are taking nothing for granted. We’ve learned the lessons of 2000 and 2016, when third-party candidates helped throw the White House to Republicans, and we’re not going to allow a repeat of that in 2024,” Democratic National Committee communications adviser Lis Smith told ABC News. “[Third-party candidates] are going to get a few percentage points, and that could affect the outcome in a close election, which by all polls, it appears very, very likely it’s going to be very close,” nonpartisan pollster Bernie Porn said to the outlet.
Badger Values was founded by a Republican consultant and has spent well over $1 million on its pro-Stein campaign, according to campaign finance disclosures. Civic Truth Action, meanwhile, has raised over $4 million from a Democratic-aligned dark money group and spent it boosting Libertarians while employing veteran Democratic operatives, according to the NYT.
Efforts to siphon votes away from Republicans have been especially active in the Texas and Maryland Senate races. The Save Western Culture PAC, for instance, has been trying to convince conservative voters that Republican former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are too liberal to earn their vote, the New York Post reported.
“Lockdown Larry said Biden won the 2020 election, closed our jobs and our schools, called President Trump outrageous and unacceptable, and said conservative values are absurd and dangerous,” a phone banker affiliated with PAC said, according to a recording obtained by the New York Post. Save Western Culture has also distributed mailers pushing similar messaging. The PAC, which campaign finance disclosures show has pumped well over $200,000 into the race in recent weeks, is urging voters to support Libertarian Mike Scott, who says he has no affiliation with the committee.
“Sowing the seeds of election denial for partisan gain is a threat to our democracy, plain and simple,” a spokesperson for the Hogan campaign told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Lying to voters while asking for their trust is a slap in the face. The silence from Maryland Democrats on this is deafening.”
In Texas, meanwhile, the PAC is running ads dubbing Cruz the “cucked king,” criticizing his trip to Cancun during Texas’ widespread power outages and his response to Trump’s criticisms of his wife, according to the New York Post. The ad also referred to Cruz as a “cucked soy boy.”
Save Western Culture has spent over $150,000 pushing messages like that in Texas, according to campaign finance disclosures.
“Every election cycle, national Democrats set up dark-money groups designed to confuse voters and prop up third-party candidates who have no chance at winning,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Communications Director Mike Berg told the New York Post. “This seems to be more of the same, and voters should reject this disingenuous tactic.”
Ted Brown, the Libertarian Senate candidate Save Western Culture purports to be supporting, told the PAC that he disapproves of the ads in a message obtained by the New York Post.
Save Western Culture is engaging in similar tactics across a number of competitive House races, the New York Post reported. Since the PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission so close to the election, information about its donors and finances will only be disclosed after election day.
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