Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign treasurer doubles as treasurer of a super PAC pouring six figures into a third-party candidate in Michigan’s Senate race, according to an investigation.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Howie Stanger handles compliance work for El-Sayed’s campaign. The left-wing operative is also treasurer of a super PAC called Building America. Building America is the sole funder of Principled Patriots PAC. That group is casting Libertarian Lydia Christensen as the race’s true “conservative” alternative to Republican Mike Rogers.

Principled Patriots has sent text messages promoting Christensen while attacking Rogers as part of “the swamp,” the Free Beacon reported, citing the Midwesterner.

“[Christensen] answers to you, not defense contractors,” one message read, according to the report.

On Aug. 27, Rapid Resist Action, a left-wing group tied to former Obama official Yoni Landau, put $1.6 million into Building America, filings show. Building America then routed $250,000 to Principled Patriots on Sept. 23.

The PAC has backed minor-party candidates in other battleground states as well, among them Iowa, Texas, and Alaska, the report found.

Federal disclosures show El-Sayed’s campaign routed $141,837 to Pocketbook Strategies, Stanger’s firm, for “compliance services,” more than any campaign has sent the firm this cycle.

A spokesman for Principled Patriots disputed any coordination. “Building America is not involved in any of Principled Patriots’ decision-making,” the spokesman said, adding that Stanger is not affiliated with the group.

Christensen, told of the texts by the Free Beacon, said she had not heard of the PAC until a supporter flagged it. The Libertarian said she was “disgusted beyond measure” at what she called a “shadowy money-in-politics machination” meant to deceive voters.

El-Sayed has built his campaign on a pledge to refuse outside money. The Michigan Democrat has decried dark-money spending on Rogers’s behalf as corporate collusion, the Washington Examiner reported.

Rogers lost Michigan’s 2024 Senate race to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D.) by 19,006 votes, about one-third of a point. The Libertarian in that race drew 56,697. The former congressman has since picked up the Detroit News endorsement, which faulted El-Sayed’s ties to the party’s far-left wing.

In 2024, Stanger was treasurer of a network seeded by a super PAC connected to Democrat attorney Marc Elias’s law firm, which spent $1.4 million boosting Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver to pull conservative votes from Donald Trump, according to InfluenceWatch. The same network drew voter complaints over text messages that gave people false information about their registration and polling places.