Faceless 'Americans First' Group Mails Attacks on Six GOP House Candidates. It Won't Say Who Pays

A week before the midterms, voters in six battleground House races are opening mailers from a group that sounds like it came straight out of a Trump rally. It calls itself the American Forge Coalition. Its slogan is "Americans First, Foreigners Last." And every candidate it has been caught attacking is a Republican.

The cards hit GOP candidates from the right: too soft on amnesty, too soft on abortion, too cozy with COVID shots. Fox News Digital first reported the full list of targets on Oct. 27. Republican campaigns in those races call it a Democratic trick to make conservative voters sour on their own candidates and stay home. The group won't say who is paying for it, and the public record gives it plenty of room to hide.

Who got hit

According to Fox, mailers accused Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Jen Kiggans of Virginia of backing "mass amnesty" and "letting criminals escape justice after illegally entering our nation." Wisconsin voters were told Rep. Derrick Van Orden "would allow the murder of the unborn into the second trimester." In North Carolina's 1st District, cards claimed Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout supports "abortions up until birth."

Buckhout, an Army veteran endorsed by SBA Pro-Life America, answered on X. "The left is so desperate they have to hide behind dark money and make up complete lies about my record," she wrote. "Anyone who knows me knows I am 100% pro life." She blamed her Democratic opponent, Rep. Don Davis, and "his radical donors" for "dirty tricks and fake mailers to confuse voters."

A voter who got the Van Orden card smelled the same rat. "Van Orden has always been a pro-lifer," the voter posted, adding that a search for the group turned up nothing but signs "that they are hiding."

The Iowa twist Fox missed

Fox lists Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks among the targets but doesn't say what her voters got. Cards posted on X fill that hole, and they show the playbook going one step further.

One card says Miller-Meeks "personally injected Iowans with COVID vaccines" and "failed to stand up for our liberties," next to the line "We don't want experimental vaccines in our veins." It carries the print code AFC_097. A second card from the same group doesn't attack anyone. It sells the independent in the race, Michael Bridgford, as the man who "wants to ban China" and other nations from buying Iowa farmland, under the banner "American soil is for American families."

That matters because of the math. Miller-Meeks won this seat in 2024 by 799 votes out of more than 414,000, according to Iowa's official canvass. In a race that close, a few thousand right-leaning voters drifting to an independent, or skipping the race, could flip the seat. It's like the other team's fans slipping into your stands to boo your own quarterback.

Bridgford himself posted the cards and didn't take credit. "So since @BohannanIowa and her 'American Forge Coalition' are playing these games, hopefully @millermeeks will retaliate with something similar?" he wrote, pointing at Democrat Christina Bohannan. "Politics is such a joke…it's no wonder our government is failing." Bridgford's own profile says he is endorsed by former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who left the Democratic Party in 2024.

Fox quoted Caitlin Sutherland of Americans for Public Trust saying this effort differs from past Democratic spoiler plays because "they're not trying to promote a third-party candidate." In Iowa, the cards show it is doing both.

A movement with no names

The group's website brags about "412k signatures," "50 states" and "73 town halls." It does not name a single leader, staffer, board member or donor. There is no street address and no phone number, only an info@ email and a petition form that asks for your name, phone and ZIP code.

The paper trail is thin and recent. Delaware records show American Forge Coalition, Incorporated was formed on May 19, 2026. The website's domain was registered through GoDaddy on May 27, registry records show. Its privacy policy is dated May 14, five days before the company legally existed.

Fox reports the group set itself up as a 501(c)(4) "social welfare" nonprofit, the kind that never has to name its donors. A search of Federal Election Commission records on Oct. 27 turned up no committee under its name and no reports of independent spending in any of these races.

How the loophole works

Look closely at the wording. The cards never say "vote against" anyone. They say "Tell Congresswoman Miller-Meeks" or "Tell Michael Bridgford" something. That phrasing is the whole trick.

Under federal rules, outside spending has to be reported when an ad expressly tells people how to vote. A card that only urges you to "tell" a candidate something is generally treated as an issue ad. And the FEC's separate disclosure rule for ads near an election covers only "broadcast, cable or satellite" messages, the commission's own guidance says. Paper in your mailbox isn't on that list. So a group can flood six swing districts with attack mail in the final weeks and never file a page.

Both parties' allies have used shadow groups before. What stands out here is the costume: a group dressed as the MAGA base, aiming only at Republicans, during early voting.

What's next

The American Forge Coalition did not answer Fox's questions. Election Day is Nov. 3. Its first IRS return isn't due until well after the votes are counted, and even then a group like this doesn't have to publicly name its donors. For now, the only names on these cards belong to the Republicans they attack.