‘Absolutely Unprecedented’: Leftist PAC Infiltrates Local Republican Primaries to Flip Them Blue – By Madeline Peltzer (Townhall) / Aug 4 2020
While the nation has been distracted by the presidential election, riots, and COVID-19, one group has been quietly altering America’s political landscape from the bottom up. Unite America, a Denver-based PAC that bills itself as nonpartisan, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to oust conservative candidates for state legislature.
The organization describes itself as a movement of Democrats, Republicans, and independents “working to put voters first by fostering a more representative and functional government,” but a quick look at its history and supporters shows just how partisan it is. Unite America was founded in 2013 by Charles Wheelan, a Democrat and Dartmouth professor who made an unsuccessful bid for Rahm Emanuel’s congressional seat in 2009. Unite America’s original plan was to elect independent candidates who put “country over party,” and in 2018, the organization backed several independent candidates for state legislature in a number of states. After its third-party overture failed—only 14 of the 431 independent candidates on the ballots won—Unite America abandoned its strategy and turned its attention to championing liberal candidates running in GOP primaries.
Unite America identifies local primaries between conservative and liberal-learning Republicans in solidly red districts and then funnels hundreds of thousands of dollars to the more liberal candidate. The massive influx of outside dollars, much of it funded by Kathryn Murdoch, daughter-in-law of Fox News mogul Rupert Murdoch and a Biden supporter, makes it virtually impossible for the conservative opponent to compete against historic levels of spending for local races.
Continue to article: https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelinepeltzer/2020/08/04/absolutely-unprecedented-leftist-pac-infiltrates-local-republican-primaries-to-flip-them-blue-n2573640
