StarkFreedom PAC

StarkFreedom completes its slate: six Senate races where third-party candidates can decide who controls the Senate

Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio and Iowa Join New Hampshire; StarkFreedom Will Run AI-Powered Campaigns in All Six

Nashua, N.H. · September 25, 2026

StarkFreedom, the independent expenditure committee that launched Tuesday by naming New Hampshire as its first race, today named the remaining five: Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio and Iowa. All six are U.S. Senate races where the third-party vote can exceed the margin between the two major parties. In each, StarkFreedom will run an AI-powered online campaign for the candidate it endorses and against the Republican.

Most voters believe they have only two options. StarkFreedom's premise is that the strategic use of a third is the one enforcement mechanism a ruling party actually fears. The committee is organizing to deploy up to $2.5 million in independent expenditures across its races. It is organizing as an independent expenditure-only committee; its federal registration filing is in preparation.

New Hampshire remains StarkFreedom's first race: Constitution Party nominee Edmond Laplante, certified September 2 on the party's first statewide ballot line in state history, against Republican John Sununu and Democrat Chris Pappas. Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball rate the race a Toss-up (both September 15); so does Inside Elections. A Rasmussen Reports poll (September 8 to 10, 1,033 likely voters) put Pappas at 45 percent, Sununu at 34, StarkFreedom founder Aaron Day, who is not on the ballot, at 4, and Laplante at 2.

In Texas, Libertarian Ted Brown faces Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico. Cook Political Report (August 20) and Sabato's Crystal Ball (August 26) both rate the race a Toss Up; Inside Elections rates it Lean Republican (August 6, held September 3). The most recent poll, by Texas Southern University and YouGov (September 15 to 19, 1,800 likely voters), had Talarico at 47 percent, Paxton at 46 and Brown at 3, with 4 percent unsure. Brown, the Libertarian Party's 2024 U.S. Senate nominee, took 267,039 votes, 2.4 percent, the most for a Libertarian Senate candidate in Texas this century.

In Kansas, Libertarian David Graham faces Republican Senator Roger Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton. Cook and Sabato rate the race Likely Republican; Inside Elections rates it Leans Republican. But the first independent poll of the race, by Emerson College, Nexstar and KSN (September 15 to 16, 750 likely voters), put Hamilton ahead of Marshall, 45 to 43, with Graham at 4 percent. On the Kalshi prediction market, Marshall fell from 84 cents on September 5 to 77 cents by September 16, after The New York Times reported on September 8 that Marshall sued 700 patients over medical debts through his former practice, and that patients were arrested in 81 of those cases for missing court dates. In the same Emerson poll, Graham's voters back the Republican candidate for governor, 65 to 31.

In Michigan, U.S. Taxpayers Party nominee Tim Long faces Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. Cook Political Report rates the race a Toss Up; Sabato's Crystal Ball moved it from Toss-up to Leans Democratic this week. A Suffolk University poll (September 16 to 20, 500 likely voters) had El-Sayed at 47 percent to Rogers's 40; the RealClearPolling average as of September 20 has El-Sayed ahead by 2.8 points. Rogers lost Michigan's last Senate race, in 2024, to Elissa Slotkin by three-tenths of a point, while the Libertarian on that ballot took 1 percent.

In Ohio, Libertarian Bill Redpath faces appointed Republican Senator Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown. Cook, Inside Elections and Sabato all rate the race a Toss-up. A Trafalgar Group poll (September 14 to 16, 1,085 likely voters) had Brown at 45 percent and Husted at 42. A Bowling Green State University and YouGov poll (September 1 to 10, 1,000 likely voters) found that 24 percent of Ohio Republicans disapprove of President Trump's job performance, and that Redpath draws 4 percent of Republicans, 2 percent of independents and none of the Democrats.

In Iowa, Libertarian Thomas Laehn, the Greene County Attorney, faces Republican Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek. Cook Political Report moved the race from Lean Republican to Toss Up on August 20; Sabato's Crystal Ball followed, from Leans Republican to Toss Up, on September 22. Laehn has built his campaign around HF 639, the bill to restrict eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines, which Laehn says he helped draft; it passed the Iowa House 85 to 10 and the Senate 27 to 22 in 2025 before Governor Kim Reynolds vetoed it. "This pipeline is the biggest boondoggle in the history of our state," Laehn said in July. Hinson has not taken a public position on the pipeline's use of eminent domain or on the veto. On August 5, Bruce Rastetter, founder of Summit Agricultural Group, and Justin Kirchhoff, chief executive of Summit Carbon Solutions, hosted a fundraiser for her. FEC records show $28,500 from the two men has reached her campaign committee since 2019, and $62,100 has gone to committees bearing her name, including her joint fundraising committee.

"We picked New Hampshire first because I know that race better than anyone alive. Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio and Iowa are next for the same reason: in every one, a third party can take more votes than the margin. The polls tell you where a race stands today. They do not tell you where it stands after we start spending in it." Aaron Day, founder, StarkFreedom

The record behind the strategy is specific. In 2016, New Hampshire ran three federal races. Republicans lost all three, and in all three the third-party vote exceeded the final margin: 17,742 votes against a 1,017-vote margin in the U.S. Senate race, 34,735 against 4,904 in the First Congressional District, and 17,088 against 15,522 in the Second. The 2016 result gave New Hampshire its first all-Democratic congressional delegation since the 1850s, and no Republican has won a federal race in the state since 2014.

"In 2016 I was the margin myself, in one race. Now we are picking the margin in six." Aaron Day, founder, StarkFreedom

About Aaron Day

Aaron Day is Chairman and CEO of the Daylight Freedom Foundation and a Brownstone Institute Fellow. He ran for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire as an independent in 2016, receiving 17,742 votes in a race decided by 1,017. In 2026 he won a federal preliminary injunction against the state's ballot-access statute, litigating pro se with AI tools in 76 days. He previously chaired the Free State Project and founded Stark360, a New Hampshire political committee whose 2014 anti-endorsement campaign named nine sitting legislators. Based in Nashua, New Hampshire.

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Paid for by StarkFreedom PAC (starkfreedom.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.