‘Republicans, beware’: Dem super PAC bankrolled by dark money group meddles in key GOP primary

A Democrat super PAC, which has received more than $500K in cash from a left-wing dark money nonprofit, has jumped into a Republican congressional primary in Colorado in the latest example of Democrats meddling in a Republican primary.

Rocky Mountain Values PAC, which is bankrolled by the left-wing dark money nonprofit Sixteen Thirty Fund, has spent at least $300,000 boosting former Republican state Rep. Ron Hanks, by attacking him as being too conservative and tying him to former President Trump. Hanks is in a six-way primary race in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat abandoned by GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, according to FEC filings.

The funding comes as Democrats are presumably calculating that Hanks is less likely to defeat Democrat Adam Frisch as opposed to the Republican Jeff Hurd, who polling suggests is the front-runner. Sixteen Thirty Fund gave $500K to Rocky Mountain Values PAC in April and over $4,500 earlier this month.

Frisch lost to Boebert by just 546 votes in 2022 in a district Trump is popular in.

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Jeff Hurd and Ron Hanks are competing in the CO-03 GOP primary (Fox News Digital)

“A shock to no one, Adam and the Democrats are attacking Jeff because they know he is the only Republican who can beat Frisch and keep the seat red,” the Hurd campaign statement told The Colorado Sun earlier this month. 

“Voters in western and southern Colorado won’t be duped.”

The GOP-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund has responded by dropping roughly $400,000 in ads attacking Hanks’ record on issues like gun control and accusing him of not being aligned with Trump’s policies. 

Frisch has also spent money in the primary attacking Hurd, The Colorado Sun reported.

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Man at voting booth (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

“Why are Democrat mega donors spending so much to prop up Ron Hanks’ campaign?” CLF Communications Director Courtney Parella told Fox News Digital.  

“Republicans, beware.”

Left-wing groups getting involved in Republican primaries has become a common occurrence over the past several years as Democrats operate under the strategy that elevating a candidate they feel is weaker by touting him or her as “too conservative” in the primary will provide the Democrat with an easier opponent in November.

In 2022, Democrats spent more than $40 million to boost six pro-Trump candidates in Republican primaries, and all six of those Republicans lost their general election races to Democrats.

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Rep. Lauren Boebert  R-Colo., leaves the U.S. Capitol after the last votes of the week on Thursday, February 15, 2024 (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

However, many political experts view the strategy as risky, and DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene told the Washington Post in January 2024 that her group no longer supports the strategy of propping up “far-right” candidates in swing districts.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Hurd campaign, Hanks campaign and Sixteen Thirty Fund but did not receive a response. 

“RMV PAC is committed to defeating extreme Colorado Republicans,” Amber Miller, a spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Values PAC, told The Colorado Sun.