Connections in Michigan’s Senate Race Raise Questions
Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign treasurer is also serving as treasurer for a super PAC that is investing heavily in a third-party candidate in Michigan’s Senate race, an investigation revealed.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Howie Stanger is responsible for compliance work for El-Sayed’s campaign. Stanger also oversees a super PAC named Building America, which is the only financial backer of the Principled Patriots PAC. This organization is portraying Libertarian candidate Lydia Christensen as the genuine “conservative” option against Republican Mike Rogers.
According to the Free Beacon, Principled Patriots has been sending out text messages endorsing Christensen and criticizing Rogers, labeling him as part of “the swamp.” One of the messages stated, “[Christensen] answers to you, not defense contractors.”
Recent filings indicate that on August 27, Rapid Resist Action—a left-wing group associated with former Obama official Yoni Landau—donated $1.6 million to Building America. In turn, Building America transferred $250,000 to Principled Patriots on September 23.
The PAC has also supported minor-party candidates in various key states, including Iowa, Texas, and Alaska.
Federal disclosures suggest that El-Sayed’s campaign paid $141,837 to Stanger’s firm, Pocketbook Strategies, for compliance services, which is more than any other campaign has allocated to it this cycle.
A spokesperson for Principled Patriots denied any collaboration, stating that “Building America is not involved in any of Principled Patriots’ decision-making,” and adding that Stanger has no ties to the group.
When informed about the PAC by the Free Beacon, Christensen mentioned she was unaware of it until a supporter brought it up. She expressed her discontent, describing the situation as a “shadowy money-in-politics machination” aimed at misleading voters.
El-Sayed has built his campaign around a commitment to reject outside funding. He has criticized dark-money contributions supporting Rogers, referring to it as corporate collusion.
In the previous election cycle, Rogers lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D) by a slim margin of 19,006 votes, which amounted to about one-third of a point. The Libertarian candidate in that election received 56,697 votes. Following that election, Rogers earned the endorsement of the Detroit News, which criticized El-Sayed’s connections to the far-left faction of the party.
In 2024, Stanger acted as treasurer for a network financed by a super PAC linked to Democrat attorney Marc Elias’s law firm, which spent $1.4 million to bolster Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver in an effort to siphon conservative votes from Donald Trump. This same network faced voter complaints over misleading text messages about registration and polling locations.
