A secret group recruited far-right candidates for important elections to the US House of Representatives. This could help the Democrats

DES MOINES, Iowa – Joe Wiederien was an unlikely candidate to challenge a Republican congressman in one of the most competitive districts in the country.

Wiederien, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, was registered as a Republican until a few months ago. After a severe stroke, he could no longer drive. Because of a felony conviction, he was not allowed to vote for a while.

But when he arrived at the Iowa Capitol last month, he had far more than the 1,726 signatures needed to be placed on the ballot as a conservative alternative to first-term Republican Rep. Zach Nunn.

Similar stories occurred across the country.

Last year, a group called Run Patriots Project recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in swing districts where they could steal votes from Republicans. In addition to two races in Iowa, the group also recruited candidates in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. All six recruits described themselves as retired, disabled – or both.

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

Dirty tricks are as old as American elections, but this year's efforts could have profound consequences for the battle for control of Congress, which is expected to be decided by a handful of races.

“I thought it would be nice to be in Congress and work with President Trump,” Wiederien, 54, said 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.”

Wiederien withdrew his candidacy last month after he said it became clear he had been rigged. Like other candidates, his story begins on Facebook, where the Patriots Run Project operated a series of pro-Trump pages and ran ads that used apocalyptic rhetoric to attack establishment politicians from both parties and urge conservatives to run in November.

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

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.

Despite the ties to democratic companies, there is little evidence of who is overseeing these efforts.

Patriots Run Project is not registered as a corporation in the United States, nor is it listed as a nonprofit with the IRS. And it has not filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a political committee. The only concrete identifier listed on the group's website is a post office box in a UPS store in Washington, DC.

Messages left to email addresses and phone numbers of members of the group remained unanswered.

Jason Torchinsky, a prominent Republican election lawyer and former Justice Department official, said investigators should pay attention. “There could be a variety of federal and state crimes,” he said.

In Iowa, it is a crime to deprive or defraud voters of a “fair and impartial election process,” while in Virginia, “conspiracy against the rights of citizens” is a felony.

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.

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

In Montana, Dennis Hayes was recruited to run as a Libertarian against Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke. The group found a donor who gave him $1,740 for his filing fee, Hayes recalled.

Robert Reid, a widowed retiree running against Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans in southeast Virginia, said he was contacted by the Patriots Run Project after posting his views on Facebook. His only personal contact was when a man drove up to his house in a Mercedes SUV to deliver his completed petition signatures.

In Nebraska, Army veteran and Trump supporter Gary Bera said he was asked to run as an independent against Republican Rep. Don Bacon in the district, which includes Omaha, which is the state's most competitive. Plans changed abruptly last month when he was told the group had not collected enough signatures to qualify him.

In Iowa, the group recruited longtime GOP activist Stephanie Jones to run as an independent against Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Jones said the group collected signatures on her behalf but was unsuccessful.

Wiederien wants the Patriots Run Project investigated.

The group convinced Wiederien to change his party affiliation from Republican to Independent so he could qualify. They assured him that a 2013 felony conviction did not disqualify him and arranged for a firm to collect signatures across the district.

Those signatures were collected by Common Sense America, a Nevada limited liability company formed in February. A Colorado corporate disclosure document requiring signature collectors to register lists the phone number of a co-founder of the Democratic consulting firm Sole Strategies.

“We work very closely with Common Sense America,” said co-founder Zee Cohen-Sanchez.

Last month, Nunn was attacked in a poll, calling him an “errand boy for the one-party elite,” while Wiederien was portrayed as the pro-Trump conservative in the race.

A spokeswoman for polling firm Dynata said Patinkin Research is its client. The company has “helped elect dozens of Democratic candidates,” the poll's director said in a statement.

When it came time to turn in his petitions, Wiederien was driven to Des Moines by a Patriots Run Project employee, where they met a man in an office near the Capitol. He gave them paperwork and a folder full of signatures. All Wiederien had to do was sign a form.

Not long afterward, he heard from Republicans who convinced him that he had been deceived into believing that the Patriots Run Project was supported by Trump, and he withdrew his candidacy.

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Slodysko reported from Washington.