“They have been legitimate pioneers in this field, doing yeoman’s work to normalize deranged anti-trans rhetoric across all of conservative politics,” the pseudonymous Substacker and elections analyst Ettingermentum wrote in August. Its actual electoral track record, however, is less than impressive. “Across the years of time and tens of millions of dollars it has committed to this scheme, I don’t think they’ve ever actually helped a single candidate they’ve put in an effort for,” Ettingermentum added. “These guys are the Michael Jordans of losing elections.”
Look no further than 2022. Heading into the midterms, the group had made its largest-ever electoral investment—over $15 million across 13 states—and was predicting a “Tea-Party-sized wave” for the GOP. “It’s become clear our campaigns have paid off,” APP president Terry Schilling wrote on the eve of the election. “Many GOP candidates on the ballot tonight—such as Blake Masters, Kari Lake, Tudor Dixon, and Yesli Vega, to name just a few—have smartly targeted their Democrat opponents over their radically unpopular cultural leftism…. We look forward to celebrating many pro-family victories.”
It was a premature victory lap: All four ended up losing, as the much-hyped “red wave” turned into a trickle. Dixon, who accused her opponent, incumbent Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, of having “embraced the trans-supremacist ideology,” was crushed by more than 10 points. And Masters, whose campaign signs promised he wouldn’t “ask your pronouns in the U.S. Senate,” lost in Arizona by 5. Undeterred, the APP put out yet another election postmortem, with a foreword penned by (who else?) the Arizona also-ran. “Dropping the culture war” and “social-issue silence” were what doomed Republicans, the report argued. “With partners like APP, and with lessons learned from 2022, I am incredibly optimistic about not just 2024, but also the future of our great country,” Masters cooed.