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In Arizona's 1st Congressional District, one of the most contested races in the country, voters received poll questions testing messages that attacked Republican Jay Feely, according to screenshots obtained by The Washington Post.
"Monica Alponte is the true America First candidate in the race," one of the questions says, referring to the Libertarian candidate for the congressional seat.
Alponte said her campaign isn't behind the messages. She had raised only about $8,000 as of July and hadn't spent any money on polling.
"It's not us. We have no budget; we've never even done a poll," she said. "We know we're not going to win.
"It would be a smart campaign tactic for the Democrats to do that," she added.
The campaign of Feely's Democratic opponent, Amish Shah, denied sending the messages, and no Democratic group took responsibility for the poll. But the survey has escalated long-standing Republican suspicions that Libertarian candidates in hot congressional races are being propped up by Democrats aiming to siphon off conservative votes.
The concern is especially acute this cycle as Libertarian candidates have popped up in battleground districts across North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, including in Florida districts where they haven't run previously.
"This is absurd," said Feely strategist Brian Seitchik. "Someone is spending real money on a fake poll in a futile attempt to prop up a spoiler and split the Republican vote because they know they can't beat Jay Feely head-to-head. Arizona voters are smarter than this."
But boosting third-party spoilers is a bipartisan sport.
In Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia battleground races, independents and Green candidates have popped up as left-wing alternatives to Democrats, even though their social media and voter registration history show them as supporters of President Donald Trump.
In Pennsylvania's 7th District, Andrew Tupone registered to run for the House as a member of the Green Party, collecting the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot. The only issue was, the Green Party had no record of him - and until recently he had been a registered Republican, according to local news outlets.
"The Green Party was never notified, was never asked for an endorsement," Chris Robinson, a spokesman of the Pennsylvania Green Party, said of Tupone's candidacy. "We had no idea who he was."
This month, a Pennsylvania judge - following a suit from the Green Party - ordered Tupone's name removed from the ballot, ruling that the signatures collected weren't enough if he didn't have the party's approval. Tupone and his lawyer - Wally Zimolong, who belongs to a Republican national lawyers association - said they would challenge the decision. Zimolong did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the appeal or on the Green Party's allegations that Tupone was never a recognized member.
In a statement to The Post, the National Republican Campaign Committee did not confirm or deny involvement in Tupone's campaign effort, pointing instead to Democrats' alleged interference in other campaigns through Libertarian candidates.
"Their meddling is little more than a pathetic attempt to distract voters from their radical agenda: high taxes, open borders and devastating inflation," NRCC spokesman Reilly Richardson said.
Similarly, in Michigan's 7th District, Green Party candidate Shane Dedrick earned the party's nomination in the race against Rep. Tom Barrett (R), a vulnerable incumbent, and his Democratic challenger William Lawrence. Once he earned the nomination, however, the Green Party could not reach Dedrick.
"We nominated him at our April 25 convention, and I did have one phone call with him in the month of May, but since then nobody's been able to get hold of him," said Douglas Marsh, a spokesman for Michigan's Green Party. "We've sent him emails, and we've called his phone and sent text messages, but we haven't gotten any response from him since about May."
Dedrick in 2023 donated $6 to WinRed, a Republican fundraising platform, and $6 to Perry Johnson, a former Republican presidential candidate. Johnson's campaign paid Dedrick $2,237.50 in 2023 for consulting services.
While the Michigan Green Party suspects Dedrick may have ties to the GOP - which it hasn't contacted about the case - Marsh said he has no issue with Dedrick's candidacy making headlines.
"If Dedrick's only intention here was to get his name on the ballot under the Green Party's ballot line … I think that that is compatible with our project to raise the profile of our party and to put the Green Party in front of voters in any way that we can," he said. "If Republicans are trying to play some 4D chess and strip away some potential Democrat voters to a Green Party candidate, I don't really have any issue with that."
In Virginia's 2nd District, Rep. Elaine Luria (D) filed a lawsuit asking courts to allow her team to see the signatures independent candidate Bishop Staten collected to get on the ballot, questioning the legitimacy of his candidacy. Local outlets found that Staten had made pro-Trump social media posts before running this year - as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, even though the DSA's local chapter said it had no record of him. Ultimately, Luria's team concluded that the signatures were legitimate, and Staten will appear on the ballot.
NRCC spokespeople provided the same statement about the Virginia case as the one they provided for the Pennsylvania case. They did not respond to requests for comment on the Michigan case.
On the Republican side, alarms earlier this year reached the highest levels of Trump's political operation as top adviser James Blair encouraged Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to try persuading Iowa Libertarians to drop out, The Post reported in June. Kennedy's suggestion that he and one of the candidates could "make an agreement" led Democrats to accuse him of violating the law against government officials intervening in elections.
In Colorado, endangered Rep. Gabe Evans (R) faces a threat from Libertarian David Wood. In the same district in 2022, the Republican lost by fewer votes than the Libertarian received, leading Evans in 2024 to sign a pledge to uphold Libertarian values in an effort to keep the party out of his race. This year, the party discouraged such deals. Wood and Evans did not respond to requests for comment.
Elsewhere Republicans have tried litigation to force out Libertarians. In New Jersey, the state GOP challenged the signature petitions for Libertarian Lana LeguĂa to appear on the ballot in the toss-up district currently represented by Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R). Republicans said her use of out-of-state signature collectors violated state law; LeguĂa argued the law was unconstitutional.
State courts eventually sided with the GOP and removed her from the ballot, and a federal judge said he lacked jurisdiction. LeguĂa said she would campaign as a write-in.
She denied taking help from Democrats.
"I'm a Libertarian through and through," LeguĂa said. "I would absolutely not drop out to prop up a Democrat or a Republican. I do not support the two-party system."