Photo illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty
PHOENIX—With just one day to go before the midterms last week, the prospect of a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate was looking stronger than ever. But a handful of far-right foot soldiers in Arizona weren’t taking any chances.
Federal Election Commission records show the Phoenix-based Turning Point PAC, a fundraising arm of the conservative re-education machine Turning Point USA, shelled out big bucks to send a barrage of last-minute text messages to voters. But they weren’t targeted at locals choosing between incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly and fringe conservative challenger Blake Masters in Arizona.
Instead, they were geared toward people across the country in Pennsylvania, where the contest between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz was coming down to the wire.