Democratic Party asks allies to fund minority candidates to steal votes from Republicans

The Democratic Party is trying to boost alternative candidacies. It is doing so through several Democratic PACs linked to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a Democrat, who are encouraging independents to vote in three states.

The objective is to siphon off potential votes from the Republicans in these districts to eliminate their chances of securing a majority in the House.

To that end, the PAC Voter Protection Project (VPP) has invested in promoting three Libertarian candidates for the House of Representatives. They are doing so in three districts where conservatives won in past elections. Ohio's 9th, Montana's 1st and in Alaska's at-large district.

This strategy is not a PAC initiative. According to Politico, it originates from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), chaired by Suzan DelBene, the current representative for Washington's 1st District and close aelly of the Biden-Harris administration.

In this regard, the DCCC outlined a strategy on messaging websites often referred to as "red boxes," a public and legal way to target outside groups under campaign finance law.

In one such red box, the DCCC posted prompts for Democratic campaign allies to promote John Wayne Howe, the candidate for the Alaska Independence Party. The rationale for promoting this candidate is that his potential voters would be "white males under 60 without a college degree, who are either very likely to be Republicans or slightly more likely to be Republicans than Democrats." In other words, these are votes that would normally go to the Republican House candidate.

The strategy proposed by the DCCC was followed by the Vote Alaska Before Party group, which receives its funding from Democratic PACs.

A similar strategy was implemented in Ohio, this time aimed at supporting Tom Pruss, the Libertarian choice in the state's 9th District. The red box released by the DCCC urged PACs and activist groups to fund digital ads and on internet video campaigns in favor of the libertarian, who shares a potential voter base with the Republican candidate in the same district.

Finally, in Montana, the DCCC endorsed Dennis Hayes, a Libertarian candidate, encouraging PACs to promote his image. His potential voter base overlaps with some profiles of the Republican candidate. The strategy aimed to position Hayes as a politician who is strongly opposed to federal government intervention.