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Exclusive: “Dirty tricks operation” spending $500,000 in top races

A newly-registered group that Republican strategists call a “dirty tricks operation” is spending upwards of $500,000 in four key House and Senate elections to attack Republican nominees and encourage voters to support Libertarian nominees.

Save Western Culture says on its website that “America is the last great protector of global freedom and the fortunes of western culture. We must save America.” Its homepage includes exhortations to “eliminate foreign threats to our nation” and “protect children from the LGBTQ gender mafia.”

The group is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to tank Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Larry Hogan in Maryland, along with Tom Barrett in Michigan and Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina. When the Reporter tried to contact Save Western Culture using the contact form on its website, the form was unable to be submitted.

In cycle after cycle, Democrats prop up groups designed to look conservative, with the goal of either meddling in GOP primaries, or to siphon off votes from nominees in the general elections, in order to allow flawed Democratic candidates to win more easily. The expenditures suggest that some on the left view their beneficiaries, Rep. Colin Allred (D., Texas), Angela Alsobrooks, Curtis Hertel Jr., and Rep. Don Davis (D., N.C.) as being in particular need of help, House and Senate strategists noted to the Reporter. 

Earlier this year, Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D., N.Y.) orbit stood up the Last Best Place PAC to boost Rep. Matt Rosendale (R., Mont.) in his Senate primary, because Democrats viewed him as more easily beatable than the ultimate GOP nominee, Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy.

“Save Western Culture, registered 2 weeks ago with a protonmail email and a UPS store address, with no donors through October 16th, drops $519,651 on direct mail and digital ads boosting Libertarian candidates and opposing Republicans in #TXSen, #MDSen, #MI07, and #NC01,” elections analyst Rob Pyers wrote. Early indications noted by Pyers connect the group to a Republican political operative who previously worked for Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.).

One of the mailers, first reported by the Washington Reporter, tells Texans that “Ted Cruz never manned up for his family, his fellow Americans, or Texas.”

Washington Reporter

The mailer, which was sent to a reliable Republican voter, goes on to beg Texans to “vote Libertarian Ted Brown for U.S. Senate.”

Washington Reporter

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