Aaron Day, the third-party candidate who helped sink Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s reelection bid in 2016, is trying to export his approach across the country, Semafor reported on Wednesday.
Day is steering as much as $2.5 million, maybe less if it works, through his Stark Freedom PAC into cheap digital ads, many generated with AI, to build name recognition for third-party hopefuls in Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Minnesota, South Carolina, Michigan, Ohio and Kansas. He bets it takes far less money to lift an alternative candidate a few points than to win a race, and that those points will come mostly from Republican voters. His website bluntly states the goal of costing Republicans the Senate.
“You call it a spoiler campaign, I call it holding Republicans accountable,” Day told Semafor.
He says the larger aim is to check President Donald Trump through gridlock, which he thinks would keep legislation he dislikes, such as a crypto market-structure bill, from passing. He’d intended to run in New Hampshire himself, but says he stepped aside because Republicans and the Trump administration didn’t follow through on commitments during talks. He didn’t elaborate, and the White House declined to comment. He now supports right-wing Constitution Party candidate Edmond Laplante there.
The ads are tailored by race. In South Carolina, they criticize Sen. Darline Graham’s pro-war votes and promote Libertarian Kasie Whitener. In New Hampshire, they go after John Sununu over the Wall Street bailout. In Texas, they portray Ken Paxton as a “mouthpiece for DC” and Libertarian Ted Brown as the “voice of Texas.”
Brown said his goal is to win, not to help Democrats. “I’m running to defeat the corrupt two-party system,” he said.
Republican groups, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Senate Leadership Fund, declined to comment. Semafor reported that Republicans are concerned about New Hampshire, but doubt Day’s efforts will matter elsewhere. Semafor’s Burgess Everett, who describes himself as skeptical, noted that third-party candidates poll at tiny levels but that in races this tight, even small shifts can matter.