Joe Wiederien was an unlikely candidate to challenge a Republican congressman in one of the nation’s most competitive U.S. House districts.
A fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, Wiederien was registered as a Republican until months earlier. A debilitating stroke had 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 last month at the Iowa Capitol with well over the 1,726 petition signatures needed to qualify for the ballot as a conservative alternative to first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn. After filing the paperwork, he flashed a thumbs-up across the room at an operative he knew only as “Johnny.”
Several other unorthodox candidates have emerged across the country — all backed by the same shadowy group, the Patriots Run Project.
For the past year, the group has recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans in races that will help determine which party controls the House next year, an Associated Press review has found. In addition to 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 operation provides 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 sum has been spent — and some of it traces back to Democratic consulting firms.
While dirty tricks are as old as American elections, the efforts this year could have profound consequences in the fight to control Congress, which is expected to be decided by a handful of races. It's also not an isolated example: Allies of Trump have been working across the United States to get liberal academic Cornel West on the ballot in hopes he could play spoiler in the presidential election.
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“At that time I was thinking, well, it would be nice to be in Congress and get to work with President Trump,” Wiederien, 54, reflected in an interview outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Des Moines, where he was seeking treatment for a leaking incision on his head from previous brain surgery. “It looks like it’s a dirty trick now.”
Wiederien withdrew his candidacy last month after he says it became clear he'd been manipulated into running against Nunn. Now he wants an investigation to uncover the motives of those who made his candidacy possible.
Nunn on Monday called the effort a plot “to steal this election.”
“I am outraged to see anyone prey on hardworking Iowans or deceive voters,” he said.
As with other recruits, Wiederien’s story begins with Facebook, where the Patriots Run Project operated a series of pro-Trump pages and ran ads that attacked establishment politicians in both parties while urging conservatives to run. “We need American Patriots like YOU to stand for freedom with President Trump and take back control from the globalist elites by running for office,” one such ad states.
Some candidates say they were contacted because of their political posts on Facebook. Two others said the group reached out after they completed an online survey.
Once recruited, they communicated with a handful of operatives through text messages, emails and phone calls. In-person contact was limited. Run Patriots Project advised them about what forms to fill out and how to file required paperwork.
In at least three races, petition signatures to qualify for the ballot 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, a different Democratic firm conducted a poll testing attacks on Nunn, while presenting Wiederien as the true conservative.
But there is a scant paper trail to determine who is overseeing the effort. Patriots Run Project is not a registered business in the United States and it is not listed as a nonprofit with the IRS. It has not filed paperwork to form a political committee with the Federal Election Commission. The only concrete identifying detail listed on the group's website is a P.O. box inside a UPS store in Washington, D.C.
Messages left at email addresses and phone numbers for the group’s operatives went unanswered.
A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats' campaign arm, said the organization had no knowledge of or involvement in the effort. House Majority PAC, the Democrats' big spending congressional super PAC, was also not involved, a spokesman said.
Jason Torchinsky, a prominent Republican election lawyer and former Justice Department official, said investigators should take interest. “Given what is described, there could be a wide variety of federal and state criminal violations,” he said.
Rick Hasen, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles, said the effort “looks shady and unethical,” but added “it is hard to say whether any laws have been broken, which would depend not only on the facts, but also the statutes and precedents under state law.”
In Iowa, it is a crime to deprive or defraud voters of “a fair and impartially conducted election process," while in Virginia ”conspiracy against rights of citizens" is a felony.
In June, the Center for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based watchdog, issued a report that found the network of Patriots Run Project pages on Facebook likely were controlled by a small number of people. The ads violated the site's standards because they did not include disclaimers showing who was responsible. Facebook took down the pages.
But by then, the mystery operatives already were working to get recruits on ballots.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, didn't respond to a request for comment. The company reported receiving $48,000 for the group's ads.
www.thegazette.com
A fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, Wiederien was registered as a Republican until months earlier. A debilitating stroke had 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 last month at the Iowa Capitol with well over the 1,726 petition signatures needed to qualify for the ballot as a conservative alternative to first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn. After filing the paperwork, he flashed a thumbs-up across the room at an operative he knew only as “Johnny.”
Several other unorthodox candidates have emerged across the country — all backed by the same shadowy group, the Patriots Run Project.
For the past year, the group has recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans in races that will help determine which party controls the House next year, an Associated Press review has found. In addition to 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 operation provides 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 sum has been spent — and some of it traces back to Democratic consulting firms.
While dirty tricks are as old as American elections, the efforts this year could have profound consequences in the fight to control Congress, which is expected to be decided by a handful of races. It's also not an isolated example: Allies of Trump have been working across the United States to get liberal academic Cornel West on the ballot in hopes he could play spoiler in the presidential election.
ADVERTISING
“At that time I was thinking, well, it would be nice to be in Congress and get to work with President Trump,” Wiederien, 54, reflected in an interview outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Des Moines, where he was seeking treatment for a leaking incision on his head from previous brain surgery. “It looks like it’s a dirty trick now.”
Wiederien withdrew his candidacy last month after he says it became clear he'd been manipulated into running against Nunn. Now he wants an investigation to uncover the motives of those who made his candidacy possible.
Nunn on Monday called the effort a plot “to steal this election.”
“I am outraged to see anyone prey on hardworking Iowans or deceive voters,” he said.
A deceptive recruitment drive
As with other recruits, Wiederien’s story begins with Facebook, where the Patriots Run Project operated a series of pro-Trump pages and ran ads that attacked establishment politicians in both parties while urging conservatives to run. “We need American Patriots like YOU to stand for freedom with President Trump and take back control from the globalist elites by running for office,” one such ad states.
Some candidates say they were contacted because of their political posts on Facebook. Two others said the group reached out after they completed an online survey.
Once recruited, they communicated with a handful of operatives through text messages, emails and phone calls. In-person contact was limited. Run Patriots Project advised them about what forms to fill out and how to file required paperwork.
In at least three races, petition signatures to qualify for the ballot 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, a different Democratic firm conducted a poll testing attacks on Nunn, while presenting Wiederien as the true conservative.
But there is a scant paper trail to determine who is overseeing the effort. Patriots Run Project is not a registered business in the United States and it is not listed as a nonprofit with the IRS. It has not filed paperwork to form a political committee with the Federal Election Commission. The only concrete identifying detail listed on the group's website is a P.O. box inside a UPS store in Washington, D.C.
Messages left at email addresses and phone numbers for the group’s operatives went unanswered.
A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats' campaign arm, said the organization had no knowledge of or involvement in the effort. House Majority PAC, the Democrats' big spending congressional super PAC, was also not involved, a spokesman said.
Jason Torchinsky, a prominent Republican election lawyer and former Justice Department official, said investigators should take interest. “Given what is described, there could be a wide variety of federal and state criminal violations,” he said.
Rick Hasen, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles, said the effort “looks shady and unethical,” but added “it is hard to say whether any laws have been broken, which would depend not only on the facts, but also the statutes and precedents under state law.”
In Iowa, it is a crime to deprive or defraud voters of “a fair and impartially conducted election process," while in Virginia ”conspiracy against rights of citizens" is a felony.
In June, the Center for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based watchdog, issued a report that found the network of Patriots Run Project pages on Facebook likely were controlled by a small number of people. The ads violated the site's standards because they did not include disclaimers showing who was responsible. Facebook took down the pages.
But by then, the mystery operatives already were working to get recruits on ballots.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, didn't respond to a request for comment. The company reported receiving $48,000 for the group's ads.
A secretive group recruited far-right candidates in key U.S. House races. It could help Democrats.
"I was thinking, well, it would be nice to be in Congress and get to work with President Trump,” Wiederien, 54, reflected in an interview outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Des Moines, where he was seeking treatment for a leaking incision on his head from previous brain surgery. “It looks...
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