GOP-linked super PAC spends $1.58 million boosting socialist, attacking Sherrod Brown

A newly formed super PAC using a vendor connected to President Donald Trump’s political consulting network has reported $1,581,354 in spending to promote a socialist U.S. Senate candidate and attack Democrat Sherrod Brown, a seven-figure effort in Ohio’s Senate race that the candidate himself has condemned as deceptive.

The latest federal expenditure notice lists two new $376,500 expenditures associated with October 16: one supporting independent candidate Greg Levy and the other opposing Brown. Together, the $753,000 in new spending nearly doubles the amount Enough Promises Ohio had previously reported and brings its total independent expenditures to more than $1.58 million less than three weeks before Election Day.

The filing describes the new spending as “media placement / media production.” It does not specify that the entire $753,000 is for digital advertising. What the disclosures do establish is the committee’s electoral target: it is spending heavily to elevate Levy, whose socialist campaign is running to Brown’s left, while separately paying for advertising against Brown, the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Jon Husted.

Levy has repudiated the mail campaign, saying it was created without his involvement and falsely represents his candidacy. The spending resembles a third-party vote-splitting tactic, in which an outside group amplifies an alternative candidate who could attract voters otherwise inclined toward a major-party opponent. In this case, the super PAC’s own filings explicitly identify Brown as a candidate it opposes.

A $1.58 million operation built in less than three weeks

Enough Promises Ohio registered with the Federal Election Commission on September 29, only five weeks before Ohio’s November 3 election. Its first reported spending went to a company called Seven Farms for political mail. An October 7 notice reported $198,519.88 to support Levy and $17,139.67 to oppose Brown; another notice, filed October 10, reported $181,380.21 more supporting Levy. Those three expenditures alone totaled $397,039.76.

Subsequent reports continued to add spending before the latest $753,000 media purchase. According to FEC-derived expenditure totals, Enough Promises Ohio has now reported about $1.1 million supporting Levy and approximately $519,000 opposing Brown. The total reflects reported independent expenditures, not contributions to Levy’s campaign, and does not establish how many voters have actually seen the advertisements.

The sum dwarfs Levy’s own campaign resources. His committee reported raising about $125,000 through September 30. The outside super PAC has reported spending approximately nine times that amount to support him, without his campaign’s authorization or participation.

The initial mail pieces pictured Levy beneath slogans such as “Join the Revolution” and “Send a Worker to the Senate.” They highlighted positions including a $30 minimum wage, universal health care and support for Palestine. Levy’s actual campaign platform is explicitly socialist, but the advertisements were paid for by Enough Promises Ohio, not his campaign. The candidate says their design and portrayal mislead voters about who is communicating with them.

The money trail leads to Trump and Moreno’s political consultants

Federal spending records identify Seven Farms, the company paid for the original mail campaign, at 100 Coastal Drive, Suite 305, Charleston, South Carolina. Another political mail vendor, Whistlestop Strategies LLC, used that same address in federal expenditure filings associated with No Going Back PAC, an outside group financed by Trump-aligned MAGA Inc.

The connection extends beyond a shared mailing address. Florida corporate filings list Big Dog Strategies LLC as an officer or director of Whistlestop Strategies. Big Dog is a Republican campaign consulting firm founded by Chris Grant, who identifies himself as a senior adviser and general consultant to MAGA Inc. and a general consultant and chief strategist for Bernie Moreno’s successful 2024 Senate campaign against Brown.

Big Dog’s senior vice president, Bryan Gray, also served as Moreno’s 2024 campaign manager. The public record therefore connects the vendor handling pro-Levy political mail to a consulting network that helped defeat Brown two years ago and worked for Trump’s principal super PAC.

The records establish that vendor connection. They do not establish that Seven Farms and Big Dog Strategies are the same legal company, that MAGA Inc. supplied the money for Enough Promises Ohio, or that Husted’s campaign directed the expenditures. Husted’s campaign has denied involvement in the mailers.

Levy says the group is impersonating him

The campaign being promoted wants nothing to do with it. In a statement reported by the Columbus Free Press, campaign spokesperson Matthew Charlebois said, “Our campaign has no ties to the PAC behind these mailers,” and accused the group of falsely impersonating Levy and using a racist caricature of the Black candidate to deceive voters. The campaign has called the portrayal a form of “digital blackface” and said it was considering legal action.

Levy is not a fictional or Republican-created candidate. He is running as an independent affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and has his own campaign, proposals and supporters. His decision to stay in the race has not changed. Levy’s campaign told Axios it would remain on the ballot while rejecting the unrelated advertising effort.

The difference matters: Enough Promises Ohio is not donating $1.58 million to Levy. It is independently buying political communications in a race that includes Levy, Brown, Husted and Libertarian William Redpath. Ohio voters can choose among those candidates; the dispute is over the identity and purpose of a heavily funded outside advertiser claiming to support one of them.

Who is paying for it remains undisclosed

Despite the seven-figure expenditure reports, the identity of Enough Promises Ohio’s donors has not yet emerged from its published itemized contribution records. The super PAC’s FEC financial summary shows no receipts in its initial reporting period, which covered only September 29 and 30. That is not evidence that the group has operated without funding; its subsequent expenditure notices disclose substantial activity after that initial period closed.

The next required report is due October 22. Under the FEC’s reporting schedule, the pre-general filing will disclose reportable receipts and expenditures through October 14. Activity after that cutoff, including the latest October 16 media spending, belongs to a subsequent reporting period.

For now, the public filings identify what the money is doing but not who is providing it: a newly formed super PAC has spent more than $1.58 million elevating a socialist Senate candidate who rejects its support and opposing Sherrod Brown, with the initial advertising flowing through a vendor linked to veteran Republican operatives. The identity of the donors financing Enough Promises Ohio remains the principal unanswered question.