Republicans advanced an anti-socialism resolution during a House hearing, turning the chamber into another stage for the same political theater that both parties keep pretending to hate. Democrats called it part of a “silly season” display, while the reporting said Republicans and Democrats are accusing each other of cynical ploys even as they use the same tactics they denounce.
Who Runs the Game
The House hearing put the machinery of authority on display. Republicans pushed the anti-socialism resolution, and Democrats answered by dismissing the whole spectacle as a “silly season” performance. That’s the frame here: elected officials fighting over branding while the apparatus keeps grinding forward, and ordinary people are left to watch the same scripted outrage cycle.
The report said both parties are deploying increasingly aggressive tactics to shape the 2026 midterms. Those tactics include efforts to influence rival primaries, obscure political spending and exploit election deadlines. Millions of dollars have been routed through deceptively named political committees to influence rival primaries, and filing deadlines have been used to give favored successors a clearer path to the ballot. Control of Congress, the report said, may come down to what many view as cheap tricks.
In Alaska, the absurdity got a name: Dan Sullivan. Two separate individuals named Dan Sullivan are running for Senate, and a third just endorsed one over the other. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told the “Ruthless” podcast that he’s prepared to beat Democrat Mary Peltola, despite the Democratic Party allegedly recruiting another candidate named Dan Sullivan to put on the ballot. 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.
Who Pays for the Trickery
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. 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 offers a different flavor of the same manipulation. The National Republican Senatorial Committee reportedly worked behind the scenes to encourage Rep. Jasmine Crockett to enter Texas’ Democratic Senate primary. One source familiar with the process called it an “AstroTurf recruitment process” when speaking with NOTUS in 2025. The NRSC began its alleged campaign by releasing a poll showing Crockett leading the field in a hypothetical Democratic primary. Prior to the NRSC’s poll, Crockett had not been included in most primary surveys.
Subsequent polls showed Crockett pulling in considerable support, and the congresswoman ultimately cited the strong polling as part of her motivation in entering the race. The source said 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 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.
Dark Money, Fake Polls, and Ballot Control
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. In the Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota Senate races, 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.
Dan Osborn, the independent running in Nebraska, said in a campaign statement that he 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. His campaign spokesperson said, “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,” and added, “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 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. A spokeswoman for Conservative Americans PAC said, “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.”
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, Median Strategies folded and admitted that its polls were fake to the Los Angeles Times.
The company said in an email to the Times, “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 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.
Montana shows how cleanly the ballot can be managed when the right people hold the calendar. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, suspended his re-election campaign just minutes before the filing deadline for candidates. Kurt Alme, Daines’ preferred successor, filed paperwork to run for Senate just minutes before the senator withdrew. 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.
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. Former Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester said, “They obviously did this to keep certain people out of these races,” and added, “It wasn’t an accident.”
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. The maneuver effectively cleared the way for a lawmaker’s chosen successor. Garcia cited health problems when explaining his sudden decision to retire, though he called criticisms over how the situation looked “fair.”