In the final weeks of the 2026 midterms, Republican candidates across the country began to face an unusual line of attack. In an election widely viewed as a referendum on the Trump administration, suddenly many of them were accused of being insufficiently conservative.
A cascade of robocalls and text messages warned that Republicans on the ballot had betrayed conservative principles. Political mailers accused GOP candidates of embracing liberal policies. The messages offered a consistent alternative: little-known Libertarian or third-party candidates who were portrayed as true conservatives.
Behind those messages were three obscure political organizations that did not exist until this year, including one formed just last month: Our Heritage Matters , American Forge Coalition and Patriotic Duty Initiative. While they operated under different names, corporate and federal election records reviewed by CNN link all three to the same Salt Lake City accountant.
The most prolific, Our Heritage Matters, a super PAC, emerged less than three weeks before Election Day and reported spending more than $8.5 million across 35 House and Senate races, including two closely watched Senate contests that Democrats ultimately won.
That spending may have mattered most in some of the closest House races. In two of those races, one in Ohio, the other in South Carolina, the Libertarian candidate received more votes than the Republican margin of defeat. Since federal election law prohibits super PACs from coordinating with candidates or their campaigns, the Libertarians boosted by these efforts were almost certainly unwitting beneficiaries of them.
“I had no idea any of this was going on in the background,” said Thomas McMasters, who ran as a Libertarian in Ohio’s 10th District, and who was routinely praised in a series of text messages paid for by Our Heritage Matters.
According to messages obtained by CNN from the anti-robocall firm Nomorobo, one text message warned voters to “STOP liberals and Fake Republicans from TAKING OUR GUNS,” before praising McMasters as a defender of Second Amendment rights and urging recipients to vote for him. McMasters ended up in third place, with 8,906 votes, while the Democrat in the race, Kristina Knickerbocker, beat Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Turner by 4,938 votes.
“If they’re conveying my message properly, I don’t have a problem with them,” McMasters told CNN. “But if the real objective was to support Knickerbocker they should have to say they’re supporting Knickerbocker.”
The last-minute spending operation offers a unique window into the increasingly opaque world of outside political spending, where groups, backed by anonymous donors, can pour millions of dollars into close races without ever having to disclose who they are or where their money comes from.
In the years since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision opened the door to unlimited outside spending, super PACs and nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors have grown into an increasingly powerful and murky opaque force in American elections. Groups can emerge virtually overnight, spend heavily to influence competitive races and then vanish without ever disclosing the source of their money.
That kind of dark money accounted for at least $1.47 billion in spending during the 2026 midterms, exceeding the $1.35 billion spent in 2024, according to Open Secrets.
A CNN analysis of hundreds of federal campaign finance records, political robocalls, campaign mailers and election results reveal the scale of the last-minute spending effort and the tactics used to peel conservative voters away from Republican candidates.
The groups relied on a consistent playbook: robocalls and mailers accusing Republicans of abandoning conservative principles on abortion, gun rights and immigration, while presenting a little-known Libertarian as the true conservative alternative.
“There is only one conservative running for US Senate in Minnesota this year and her name is Rebecca Whiting,” said one robocall from Our Heritage Matters obtained by CNN from the anti-robocall firm Nomorobo.
The recording, one of dozens reviewed by CNN, accused Republican Senate nominee Michele Tafoya of supporting liberal positions on abortion and gun rights, presenting Whiting, the Libertarian nominee, as the conservative alternative. Tafoya lost by double-digits.
In Michigan, another robocall from Our Heritage Matters accused Republican Rep. Tom Barrett of supporting expanded government surveillance.
“Spy State politicians like Barrett are leading the charge to expand government surveillance, and they have no problem letting AI-powered big tech companies use data centers to track our every move,” the recording said. Barrett lost his reelection bid. Our Heritage Matters reported spending more than $68,000 opposin g him.
In Arizona, a political mailer from Our Heritage Matters targeted Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani with a photo of a Mexican flag and a warning labeling him a “Mexican-born RINO,” accusing him of using his position to “put Mexico first.”
Along with McMasters in Ohio’s 10th District, the Libertarian candidate in South Carolina’s 1st District also got more votes than the Republican lost by. Following a messaging blitz paid for by Our Heritage Matters, Libertarian William Reeside received 5,351 votes, while Democrat Nancy Lacore beat Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt by 3,352 votes.
During that campaign, one message portrayed Reeside as a hardline opponent of illegal immigration, declaring that he was the only candidate who would fight a “tidal wave of criminal illegals.” A separate text told voters they didn’t have to choose between “two bad choices for Congress,” instead promoting Reeside as an “America First” conservative.
The messages directed voters to Our Heritage Matters’ website.
The effort also extended into some of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races, where the group concentrated millions of dollars in reported expenditures.
In Kansas, Our Heritage Matters reported spending more than $850,000 opposing Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and another $609,000 supporting one of his opponents, Libertarian David Graham. In Iowa, it reported more than $567,000 opposing Republican Ashley Hinson and nearly $716,000 promoting the Libertarian in that race, Thomas Laehn.
Democrats won both contests, though in each race the Democratic candidate’s margin of victory exceeded the number of votes received by the Libertarian candidate.
Some of the attacks were particularly pointed.
“If you’re a Christian, there’s something you should know,” a robocall targeting Marshall began, before alleging that the Republican senator, a physician, had personally terminated pregancies. Marshall denied ever performing abortions .
Patriotic Duty Initiative, meanwhile, circulated its own robocalls criticizing Republican candidates over immigration, national security and veterans’ benefits. Other calls promoted lesser-known candidates.
In Arizona, Patriotic Duty Initiative praised Libertarian congressional candidate Jereme Peters for his hardline immigration positions and encouraged listeners to call and thank him for fighting to secure the border.
In South Carolina, Patriotic Duty Initiative targeted Republican Sen. Darline Graham over national security. “If you’re worried about Communist China, don’t hang up,” the recording says, before citing Graham saying , “national security is not my thing.”
American Forge Coalition employed similar messaging through political mailers.
The organization targeted Republican candidates in competitive House races in New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Virginia and North Carolina, according to Fox News , portraying them as insufficiently conservative on issues including immigration.
In Pennsylvania, American Forge Coalition sent mailers targeting Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, accusing him of supporting “mass amnesty” for undocumented immigrants and allowing criminals to escape justice.
The attacks prompted warnings to voters on Election Day. Text messages obtained by CNN accused American Forge Coalition and Our Heritage Matters of spreading false information about Republican candidates in an effort to suppress GOP turnout.
“Do Not be fooled by them,” the messages warned , urging recipients to vote and providing a phone number for assistance that CNN traced to the Bucks County Republican Committee.
Federal election records show that all of the Our Heritage Matters super PAC’s reported independent expenditures were attributed to two Delaware companies formed on October 6, just nine days before the organization registered with federal election regulators. Chase Grove LLC was listed for approximately $7.1 million in expenditures, primarily for digital advertising, while Good Way Associates was listed for approximately $1.4 million for political mail, text messages and telephone advertising.
The financial picture is much murkier for the other two organizations, American Forge Coalition and Patriotic Duty Initiative , which were incorporated in Delaware in May as nonprofits with stated intentions of operating as 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups.
Unlike the super PAC, neither organization has publicly disclosed a comparable accounting of its election-related spending, making it difficult to determine how much the three groups collectively spent targeting Republican candidates — or who financed their efforts. The super PAC is required to report their donors in a report by December 3, a full month after voters cast their ballots.
Despite operating under different names, the three organizations shared at least one documented connection. Corporate records obtained by CNN show that Mike McCauley, a Salt Lake City accountant, incorporated both American Forge Coalition and Patriotic Duty Initiative in Delaware on May 19, the same day.
McCauley did not respond to a request for comment, nor did any of the groups.
The organizations were formed as nonprofit, nonstock corporations with stated intentions of operating as 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups, which generally are not required to publicly disclose their donors.
Five months later, McCauley was listed as the treasurer of Our Heritage Matters when the super PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission on October 15, just 19 days before Election Day.
McCauley’s firm provides accounting and compliance services to political organizations and has worked with Republicans in the past.
While the records establish that the groups have a common connection, they do not show whether they shared donors, political strategists or vendors, or whether they coordinated any activities.
The timing of the forming of Our Heritage Matters has meant voters went to the polls without knowing who was financing the super PAC’s last-minute campaign. The group registered with the FEC on October 15, one day after the reporting period for pre-election campaign finance disclosures had closed.
Although the super PAC was required to report qualifying independent expenditures as it made them, it was not required to file its first regular financial report identifying contributors before Election Day.
For American Forge Coalition and Patriotic Duty Initiative, the picture is even less clear and could remain so. As organizations formed with the intention of operating under the tax rules governing 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups, they would not generally be required to publicly identify their donors.
The result is that, even after Election Day, the full scale of the three groups’ activities — and the identities of the people who financed them — remains unknown.
