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Republicans and Democrats are deploying increasingly aggressive tactics to shape the 2026 midterms — including efforts to influence rival primaries, obscure political spending and exploit election deadlines.
Both parties are accusing one another of using cynical tactics to influence voters and shape the field ahead of Election Day, even as operatives aligned with each of them employ similar strategies. Those maneuvers have included routing millions of dollars through deceptively named political committees to influence rival primaries and using filing deadlines in ways that gave favored successors a clearer path to the ballot.
Many of these schemes are being carried out in key races, meaning that control of Congress may come down to what many view as cheap tricks — a prospect that could serve to further erode public trust in government.
The tale of three Dans
Two separate individuals named Dan Sullivan are running for Senate in Alaska, and a third just endorsed one over the other.
ALASKA SENATE RACE’S ABSURD NAME PROBLEM GETS EVEN HARDER TO UNTANGLE
Former Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, teacher Dan Sullivan and Sen. Dan Sullivan. (REUTERS/Mark Meyer | AP Photo/Becky Bohrer | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Republicans have argued that the confusing state of affairs in Alaska is the product of a Democratic ploy to disorient voters.
Incumbent GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is facing a challenge from teacher Dan J. Sullivan, whom Republicans have accused of running as a Republican solely to confuse voters to the benefit of Democrats. Alaska’s electoral system allows the top-four vote-getters in the state’s nonpartisan primary to advance to the ranked-choice general election.
Fox News Power Rankings rates the Alaska Senate race as a toss-up, meaning neither party currently has a clear advantage. If enough voters confuse Dan S. Sullivan with Dan J. Sullivan, it could be enough to give Democratic nominee Mary Peltola an edge.
Republicans point to the fact that Dan J. Sullivan worked with a Democratic-aligned consultant as evidence that he is part of a plot to siphon voters off of Dan S. Sullivan. Dan J. Sullivan, meanwhile, maintains that he is an actual Republican with legitimate grievances as to the incumbent senator’s representation of his state.
A third Dan Sullivan, the former mayor of Anchorage, recently waded into the Senate race to endorse Dan S. Sullivan.
Dan J. Sullivan is reportedly being investigated by the Justice Department and Alaska election officials in separate probes examining whether he sought to deliberately mislead voters. The investigation follows a failed Republican legal effort to remove him from the ballot.
Texas primary games
The National Republican Senatorial Committee reportedly worked behind the scenes to encourage Rep. Jasmine Crockett to enter Texas’ Democratic Senate primary. Once she entered, other Republican actors also ran messaging that Democrats argued could help her with primary voters.
One source familiar with the process dubbed it an “AstroTurf recruitment process” when speaking with NOTUS in 2025.
The NRSC began its alleged campaign by releasing a poll showing Crockett, who was believed by some to be a weaker candidate in the general election than Texas state Rep. James Talarico, leading the field in a hypothetical Democratic primary. Prior to the NRSC’s poll, Crockett had not been included in most primary surveys.
That quickly changed and subsequent polls showed Crockett pulling in considerable support. The congresswoman ultimately cited the strong polling as part of her motivation in entering the race.
Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico listens to a question during the conclusion of a “Talarico for Texas: Frontera Tour” campaign rally at the International Center for Trade convention center in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 13, 2026. (Getty Images)
MORNING GLORY: ALASKA’S ‘REAL’ SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN STOOD UP OVER CHALLENGER
The source who spoke to NOTUS claimed that the NRSC worked diligently to spread those polls in progressive digital spaces and drum up support for Crockett. Once she entered the race, conservative political committees ran ads ostensibly criticizing her liberal record, though critics argued this was merely an underhanded tactic to get more Democrats to support her by publicizing positions that are generally popular with the Democratic base.
Multiple Republicans also said publicly that they were concerned about her candidacy, statements that could entice liberal voters to throw their support behind her.
Even with Crockett defeated, tensions from the bruising primary have lingered, with some Black elected officials and activists pressing Talarico to do more to address concerns among voters who overwhelmingly backed Crockett.
In(D)ependents and money movers
A network of Democratic donors, dark-money groups and left-leaning super PACs has spent well over $10 million backing five independents in Republican-leaning areas.
Critics of the strategy see it as a way for liberals to sneak left-leaning lawmakers into Congress by eschewing the branding of the Democratic Party. Though the candidates identify themselves as independents, skeptics hold that they’ll vote like Democrats if elected, a charge many of them deny, stressing their independence.
In the Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota Senate races, for instance, the Democratic nominees withdrew from their races, which Republicans have pointed to as evidence that the party is using independent candidates as a backdoor to get liberals into Congress.
U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn speaks during his campaign stop at Sly’s Family Bar and Grill in Neligh, Nebraska. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
GOP SENATOR, EX-HOUSE DEM EMERGE FROM ALASKA’S ‘JUNGLE PRIMARY’ DESPITE FAR-LEFT MEDDLING
“Dan has taken small-dollar donations from Republicans, Independents, and Democrats from all 93 of Nebraska’s counties who are done being taken advantage of by D.C. lobbyists, corporate PACs, and party bosses,” a campaign spokesperson for Dan Osborn, the independent running in Nebraska, told Fox News Digital. “Ricketts has been running from his record all campaign and has resorted to lying about Dan because he’s scared.”
On the other side of the aisle, Republican political operatives have admitted to using deceptively named super PACs to boost far-left Democratic candidates in primary elections as part of a strategy to elevate easier-to-defeat opponents.
Conservative Americans PAC, a super PAC funded by the right-leaning dark money group American Prosperity Alliance, funneled millions of dollars into three ostensibly left-leaning committees called Lead Left PAC, Real Change PAC and California Blue PAC.
The seemingly liberal committees, in turn, spent large sums of money backing candidates in Democratic primaries widely believed to be weaker general election contenders than their opponents.
Conservative Americans PAC was able to do this undetected because the ostensibly liberal PACs were formed sufficiently late such that disclosures revealing the right-wing funding did not need to be released until after the primary elections were over. This means that, as the ads were rolling, voters had no way of knowing who was paying for them.
“Republicans are leveling the playing field after over a decade of Democrats meddling in our primaries, and with the Democrat Party in the midst of a civil war, Republicans would be stupid not to take advantage while pushing their candidates farther left,” a spokeswoman for Conservative Americans PAC said of the spending.
Phantom polling
Some political polls that circulated widely this cycle were later revealed to have been fabricated.
Median Strategies, an organization recently revealed to have been run by a 21-year-old, released polls on the Los Angeles mayoral election as well as the Wisconsin and Nevada gubernatorial elections that circulated through the media ecosystem, drawing coverage from news outlets and even being touted by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
After members of the press began raising scrutiny, however, Median Strategies folded and admitted that its polls were fake to the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass looks on during a campaign rally at East End Studios on June 9, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass kicked off her re-election campaign a day after Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman advanced to a November runoff election after overtaking former reality television personality Spencer Pratt in the city’s mayoral primary. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
ALASKA REPUBLICANS SCRAMBLE TO EDUCATE VOTERS ON SUSPECTED DEM PLANT AS ‘BALLOT FATIGUE’ THREATENS RACE
“Median Strategies was created as a short term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the company said in an email to the Times.
The fake polling outfit pushed polls claiming that Bass was leading her DSA-aligned rival by a significant margin and that Wisconsin state lawmaker Francesca Hong, who ultimately lost her primary, had a commanding lead over other Democrats.
Paperwork workaround
Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, suspended his re-election campaign just minutes before the filing deadline for candidates.
While this may seem puzzling on its own, Kurt Alme, Daines’ preferred successor, filed paperwork to run for Senate just minutes before the senator withdrew.
STEVE DAINES’ HANDPICKED SENATE SUCCESSOR KURT ALME VOWS TO KEEP MONTANA IN REPUBLICAN HANDS IN 2026
Former U.S. District Attorney Kurt Alme knows he was tapped to replace outgoing Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., to maintain the GOP’s majority in the Senate, and he’s ready to lean into his bonafides to keep the Treasure State red. (Alme Campaign)
When a sitting member of Congress retires, top-tier candidates typically throw their hats into the ring to take advantage of the fact that there won’t be an incumbent to run against. Because Daines held off retiring to the last moment, and seemingly coordinated with Alme, he effectively cleared the field for him, as no high-profile Republicans filed to run in Montana’s Senate primary.
“They obviously did this to keep certain people out of these races,” former Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester said of the maneuver. “It wasn’t an accident.”
Daines wasn’t the only one to leverage filing deadlines in this manner.
Rep. Chuy Garcia, a Chicago-area Democrat, decided not to seek reelection, while his congressional chief of staff had gathered the signatures necessary to appear on the Democratic primary ballot. Once again, the maneuver effectively cleared the way for a lawmaker’s chosen successor.
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Garcia cited health problems when explaining his sudden decision to retire, though he called criticisms over how the situation looked “fair.”
