Democratic donors prop up far-right candidates including Wisconsin gun activist in Senate race

WASHINGTON (AP) — David Steinglass, a wealthy donor, has supported scores of Democrats running for office and calls himself an activist for transgender rights.

So his donation earlier this year to a far-right candidate in Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race seemed wildly out of character. He gave the maximum $3,300 to help get a man on the ballot who had these items in his background: He was investigated in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, he is a gun rights activist and he has called for banning some gender-affirming treatments for minors.

Far from an anomaly, the donation is part of a larger design. Steinglass’ contribution to “America First” candidate Thomas Leager, and thousands more he and his wife gave to other far-right independents in key congressional races, is supporting a plan to boost Democrats and siphon votes from Republicans, an Associated Press examination found.

As the election cycle enters an urgent, final five weeks, both Democrats and Republicans are engaging in questionable tactics that threaten to subvert the democratic process by trying to shape the ballot through deceptive means.

“Whether it’s congressional or presidential races, this kind of activity is a real problem and it undermines the functioning of democracy,” said Edward B. Foley, a law professor who leads Ohio State University’s election law program.

Leager told the AP he was recruited last year to run by operatives who said they were with the Patriots Run Project. That group promoted itself as a pro-Trump grassroots movement that attacked both parties and urged conservatives to run for office as independents. The AP found the group was supported by Democratic firms and donors who worked to install several pro-Trump independent candidates in key House races. Most of them were disabled, retired or both.

Records show Democrats have given tens of thousands of dollars seeking ballot access for the far-right candidates. The supporters include Steinglass and his wife, Liz, who have given more than $5 million to support Democratic political groups, and others who have contributed to and worked for Democratic candidates.

While the strategy hasn't always worked, Leager is among the candidates who qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot and could complicate Republicans' efforts to reclaim the Senate. He’s running as a right-wing alternative to GOP nominee Eric Hovde, who is challenging two-term Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

The AP’s findings triggered a criminal investigation in Iowa and prompted a conservative group to file a legal complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that it had violated political disclosure laws.

The Patriots Run Project came under scrutiny after the AP reported that one of its candidates in a House race in Iowa suspected he’d been tricked and removed his name from the ballot last month.

The man, Joe Wiederien, who is impaired after suffering a stroke, said an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent visited him last week and he filed an election fraud complaint.

“Whoever it is, I think that project is going down sooner or later,” said Wiederien, who was among several recruited to run through the group’s network of now-shuttered Facebook pages.

The Patriots Run Project is not a registered business, nonprofit organization or political committee. After AP’s report last month, the group moved even further underground, disabling its account for X, formerly Twitter, and websites. More than 10 donors and consultants supporting its efforts haven’t returned messages.

Liz Steinglass declined comment when a reporter visited her at the family's Washington, D.C., home. Her husband, a retired private equity fund manager, didn't return a message. The couple has given at least $9,900 to three candidates who said they were recruited by the Patriots Run Project, records show.

When an operative for Patriots Run Project called him last summer and urged him to enter the Senate race in Wisconsin, Leager said he told the group that he would be a controversial candidate because of his association with some of the men charged in the 2020 plot to kidnap Whitmer. He was not among several defendants charged in state and federal court, and he has said he never discussed plans to kidnap her. Court documents show he was among 16 others listed by the Michigan attorney general’s office as an unindicted co-conspirator.

But the Patriots Run Project nonetheless arranged roughly $20,000 in donations from Democratic donors to gather the signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, which went to a firm that usually works for Democrats.

Leager was subpoenaed to testify at a 2022 trial for four defendants and exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination after a judge found he had legal exposure. A prosecutor said at that hearing that Leager was “under investigation for a similar plot involving a different” politician, had encouraged violence against the FBI on his podcast, and had invited armed protesters to appear outside a courthouse in an effort to intimidate jurors. Leager has denied supporting violence.

Leager is former executive director of Wisconsin Gun Owners Inc., which takes a maximalist position on the Second Amendment. In 2020, he organized protests for ReOpen Wisconsin, which included armed demonstrations opposing government closures and mandates intended to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Through his activism he became acquainted with Stephen Robeson, with whom he later broke ties with after correctly suspecting he was an FBI informant. Leager attended a field training exercise in Cambria, Wisconsin, where investigators alleged the idea of attacking government officials was discussed.

Leager said he was an associate of alleged kidnapping plot leader Barry Croft, who is serving a lengthy prison term. Croft argues he was entrapped by government informants and is asking for a new trial.

“I was the Wisconsin target for the FBI in the Whitmer case. We just happened to slip through their nets,” Leager said in March on “The Free Men Report,” a show he streams on Rumble.

Leager said an operative calling himself “Johnny Shearer” told him Patriots Run Project had seen his work and he was the exact type of candidate they wanted, saying the group was impressed “that I had not caved under pressure from the feds.”

Six donors gave Leager the maximum $3,300 donation. In addition to David Steinglass, they include venture capitalist Richard Thompson of Wyoming and political consultant Joe Fox, a veteran of Democratic campaigns and House Majority PAC, congressional Democrats' super PAC.

Leager said their money paid for signature-gathering efforts by Urban Media LLC, a Milwaukee firm that usually works for Democrats and has done work for Vice President Kamala Harris and Baldwin.

The Steinglass family, Fox and Thompson also donated to independent conservative candidates Robert Reid and Thomas Bowman in House races in Virginia and Minnesota, records show.

A small network of Democratic donors also supported the three candidates as well as Vann Whitley, who unsuccessfully sought ballot access as a Libertarian in a Colorado House race.

Leager said he was “suspicious a little bit” of the group’s motives but that he ultimately didn’t care. “I was like, ‘if this gets me on the ballot, that’s the main point.’ I wanted to get in the game,” he said.

Leager said the Patriots Run Project had no other “real influence” on his campaign but he was angry to have been misled.

Hovde has alleged publicly that Leager is a “Democrat plant” intended to take votes from him.

Baldwin’s campaign said it had no role in getting Leager on the ballot.

Leager rejected the allegation that he would hurt only Hovde, saying he expects to take votes from both sides.

“They are trying to say I am some kind of Democratic operative, which is silly because I am more conservative than Hovde is,” he said.

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. AP news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

FILE - Joseph Wiederien speaks during an interview in Des Moines, Iowa, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

FILE - Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wears a mask with the word "vote" displayed on the front during a roundtable discussion on healthcare, Oct. 7, 2020, in Kalamazoo, Mich. (Nicole Hester=miarb

FILE - This undated booking photo provided by the Delaware Department of Justice shows Barry Croft Jr. Croft Jr., a Delaware trucker described as a co-leader of the conspiracy to kidnap Michigan's governor, was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022, a day after an accomplice received 16 years behind bars. (Delaware Department of Justice via AP, File)

FILE - Protesters gather for a rally against Gov. Tony Evers' extended stay-at-home order due to COVID-19, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis., April 24, 2020. (Amber Arnold/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File)

FILE - Joseph Wiederien speaks during an interview in Des Moines, Iowa, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

FILE - Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.,speaks during a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris at West Allis Central High School, July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf, File)

FILE - Eric Hovde, a Republican businessman and real estate mogul launched, announces he is running for U.S. Senate against Wisconsin Democratic incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Feb. 20, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (Mark Hoffman=wimil

LONDON (AP) — With one puff of a cigarette, a woman in Canada became a global symbol of defiance against Iran's bloody crackdown on dissent — and the world saw the flame.

A video that has gone viral in recent days shows the woman — who described herself as an Iranian refugee — snapping open a lighter and setting the flame to a photo she holds. It ignites, illuminating the visage of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest cleric. Then the woman dips a cigarette into the glow, takes a quick drag — and lets what remains of the image fall to the pavement.

Whether staged or a spontaneous act of defiance — and there’s plenty of debate — the video has become one of the defining images of the protests in Iran against the Islamic Republic’s ailing economy, as U.S. President Donald Trump considers military action in the country again.

The gesture has jumped from the virtual world to the real one, with opponents of the regime lighting cigarettes on photos of the ayatollah from Israel to Germany and Switzerland to the United States.

In the 34 seconds of footage, many across platforms like X, Instagram and Reddit saw one person defy a series of the theocracy’s laws and norms in a riveting act of autonomy. She wears no hijab, three years after the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests against the regime’s required headscarves.

She burns an image of Iran’s supreme leader, a crime in the Islamic republic punishable by death. Her curly hair cascades — yet another transgression in the Iranian government’s eyes. She lights a cigarette from the flame — a gesture considered immodest in Iran.

And in those few seconds, circulated and amplified a million times over, she steps into history.

In 2026, social media is a central battleground for narrative control over conflicts. Protesters in Iran say the unrest is a demonstration against the regime’s strictures and competence. Iran has long cast it as a plot by outsiders like United States and Israel to destabilize the Islamic Republic.

And both sides are racing to tell the story of it that will endure.

Iranian state media announces wave after wave of arrests by authorities, targeting those it calls “terrorists” and also apparently looking for Starlink satellite internet dishes, the only way to get videos and images out to the internet. There was evidence on Thursday that the regime’s bloody crackdown had somewhat smothered the dissent after activists said it had killed at least 2,615 people. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the mayhem of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Social media has bloomed with photos of people lighting cigarettes from photos of Iran’s leader. “Smoke ’em if you got ’em. #Iran,” posted Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana.

In the age of AI, misinformation and disinformation, there’s abundant reason to question emotionally and politically charged images. So when “the cigarette girl” appeared online this month, plenty of users did just that.

It wasn’t immediately clear, for example, whether she was lighting up inside Iran or somewhere with free-speech protections as a sign of solidarity. Some spotted a background that seemed to be in Canada. She confirmed that in interviews. But did her collar line up correctly? Was the flame realistic? Would a real woman let her hair get so close to the fire?

Many wondered: Is the “cigarette girl” an example of “psyops?” That, too, is unclear. That’s a feature of warfare and statecraft as old as human conflict, in which an image or sound is deliberately disseminated by someone with a stake in the outcome. From the allies’ fake radio broadcasts during World War II to the Cold War’s nuclear missile parades, history is rich with examples.

The U.S. Army doesn’t even hide it. The 4th Psychological Operations Group out of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina last year released a recruitment video called, “Ghost in the Machine 2 that’s peppered with references to “PSYWAR.”And the Gaza war featured a ferocious battle of optics: Hamas forced Israeli hostages to publicly smile and pose before being released, and Israel broadcast their jubilant reunions with family and friends.

Whatever the answer, the symbolism of the Iranian woman's act was powerful enough to rocket around the world on social media — and inspire people at real-life protests to copy it.

The woman did not respond to multiple efforts by The Associated Press to confirm her identity. But she has spoken to other outlets, and AP confirmed the authenticity of those interviews.

On X, she calls herself a “radical feminist” and uses the handle Morticia Addams —- after the exuberantly creepy matriarch of “The Addams Family” — sheerly out of her interest in “spooky things,” the woman said in an interview with the nonprofit outlet The Objective.

She doesn’t allow her real name to be published for safety reasons after what she describes as a harrowing journey from being a dissident in Iran — where she says she was arrested and abused — to safety in Turkey. There, she told The Objective, she obtained a student visa for Canada. Now, in her mid-20s, she said she has refugee status in and lives in Toronto.

It was there, on Jan. 7, that she filmed what’s become known as “the cigarette girl” video a day before the Iranian regime imposed a near-total internet blackout.

“I just wanted to tell my friends that my heart, my soul was with them,” she said in an interview on CNN-News18, a network affiliate in India.

In the interviews, the woman said she was arrested for the first time at 17 during the “bloody November” protests of 2019, demonstrations that erupted after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal that Iran had struck with world powers that imposed crushing sanctions.

“I was strongly opposed to the Islamic regime,” she told The Objective. Security forces “arrested me with tasers and batons. I spent a night in a detention center without my family knowing where I was or what had happened to me.” Her family eventually secured her release by offering a pay slip for bail. “I was under surveillance from that moment on.”

In 2022 during the protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, she said she participated in a YouTube program opposing the mandatory hijab and began receiving calls from blocked numbers threatening her. In 2024, after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, she shared her story about it — and was arrested in her home in Isfahan.

The woman said she was questioned and “subjected to severe humiliation and physical abuse.” Then without explanation, she was released on a high bail. She fled to Turkey and began her journey to Canada and, eventually, global notoriety.

“All my family members are still in Iran, and I haven’t heard from them in a few days,” she said in the interview, published Tuesday. “I’m truly worried that the Islamic regime might attack them.”

A demonstrator lights a cigarette with a burning poster depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of Iran's anti-government protests, in Holon, Israel Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

CORRECTS MONTH - A protester lights a cigarette off a burning poster of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A protester burns an image of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a cigarette during rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Zuerich, Switzerland.(Michael Buholzer /Keystone via AP)