by WorldTribune Staff, October 11, 2024 Contract With Our Readers

An independent candidate running in what is a competitive race in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District has suspended his campaign and endorsed his Republican rival after discovering he he was tricked by Democrats into running as a spoiler to split the conservative vote.

Thomas Bowman

Thomas Bowman said he’d come to the realization that he was a “pawn” for an election fraud scheme concocted by a group of Democrat consulting firms, The Associated Press reported.

One of the firms, calling themselves Patriots Run Project, recruited Bowman and at least eight other candidates to run in House and Senate races as independents on a pro-Trump conservative platform.

An AP investigation found the Democrat firms and donors secretly drove the effort, which used deceptive Facebook pages and websites to recruit candidates and funded efforts to qualify for the ballot.

Bowman said he would suspend his campaign and endorse Republican Joe Teirab, who is seeking to unseat Democrat Rep. Angie Craig in the suburban Minneapolis district. Bowman’s name will remain on the ballot.

“I certainly spent a lot of time and effort influencing the race as a pawn in this scheme here,” said Bowman.

Bowman told the Associated Press he suspected he may have been recruited by Democrat operatives hoping to reelect Craig and that he received nearly $20,000 in donations to gather signatures for ballot access. At that time, he said he saw nothing wrong with the arrangement.

Bowman said he changed his mind in part after learning one of the donors, Elizabeth Steinglass, had also given to Craig’s campaign. Steinglass and her husband, David, have given millions to Democratic political candidates and groups, and both have given the maximum this cycle to Craig’s campaign.

“Thomas is a true patriot for his willingness to boldly call out the dirty tricks that Angie Craig’s allies pulled in an attempt to interfere in the election,” Teirab said in a statement.

The Craig campaign claimed it had no involvement “with Mr. Bowman’s effort to get on the ballot.”

The Steinglass family declined comment.

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  Angie Craig, Election fraud: Democrats used Minnesota independent candidate as ‘pawn’ to split conservative vote, Joe Teirab, Patriots Run Project, Thomas Bowman, WorldTribune.com