It started with a website and one sentence. In May of 2022, we put up fireboebert.com, and the message on it was not complicated: we helped fire Madison Cawthorn, and now it was Boebert’s turn. [SOURCE: HuffPost, May 2022: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/madison-cawthorn-lauren-boebert-muckrakers-back-firing-campaign_n_62883dc4e4b05cfc268c57d2] The logo, fittingly, was a dumpster on fire. [SOURCE: Smoky Mountain News profile: https://smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/35461] I had just come off the Cawthorn campaign with my co-founder, Colonel Moe Davis, and I will be honest with you about what I thought at the time. I thought I had seen this movie before. I looked at Boebert and I saw Cawthorn’s twin sister. Same act. Same righteousness. Same certainty that the rules were written for other people. [SOURCE: Smoky Mountain News, same URL]

I want to be straight with you about the early days, because I have never pretended to be something I am not, and I am not going to start now.

In June of 2022, we reported on the networks of wealth and influence that quietly decide who rises in American politics. We named names. We reported, based on credible sources and supporting information, on introductions made in rooms most people never get to see inside. [SOURCE: D.B. Wheeler, “Remember Our June 2022 Reporting,” Feb 2026: https://www.americanmuckrakers.com/p/remember-our-june-2022-reporting] We believed then, and I believe now, that citizens have a right to understand those rooms and the people who arrange the introductions inside them.

Some of what we put out in those first weeks, we got wrong on the details. I have said that before and I will say it here. The press pointed out that, unlike Cawthorn, where there was video, some of our 2022 reporting could not be independently corroborated and had problems with dates. [SOURCE: CNN, June 2022, as summarized in Law&Crime: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/lauren-boebert-cannot-silence-speech-from-american-muckrakers-must-face-defamation-lawsuit-judge-rules/] When I was wrong on a date, I corrected it. That is the difference between us and the people we cover. We admit error, we fix it, and we do not retreat from the larger story.

Because here is what Boebert did next, and it is the part she never brings up.

She did not just deny what we reported. She tried to shut us up. She went and got a temporary restraining order against me in June of 2022. [SOURCE: Colorado Public Radio, July 2022: https://www.cpr.org/2022/07/22/lauren-boebert-no-defamation-suit-against-american-muckrakers/] And then a funny thing happened at the hearing to extend it. My attorney showed up. Nobody showed up for her. The judge vacated the order and dismissed the case. [SOURCE: CPR, same URL] Her threat collapsed the first time it touched a courtroom.

We did not stop. We filed a complaint against her with the House Office of Congressional Ethics. [SOURCE: CPR, same URL] We kept the pressure where it belonged, on the record and in the institutions that are supposed to hold these people accountable.

She won her primary that summer with sixty-six percent. [SOURCE: CPR, same URL] I will give her that. But then came November, and the district that was supposed to be a safe Republican seat nearly threw her out. She beat Adam Frisch by five hundred and forty-six votes. [SOURCE: Yahoo/WesternSlopeNow: https://news.yahoo.com/lauren-boebert-facing-defamation-lawsuit-231749545.html] Five hundred and forty-six. Remember that number, because a woman who wins by five hundred and forty-six votes is a woman who is paying attention to people like us.

Then she handed us September of 2023, and honestly, she did most of the work herself.

You know the story. Most people don’t know we broke the story and were first to report it.

The Buell Theatre in Denver, a city-owned house, a touring production of Beetlejuice. According to the city’s own incident report, she and her date were warned at intermission after three separate complaints, vaping, singing, causing a disturbance, and when a fourth complaint came in during the second act, security walked them out. [SOURCE: Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/13/lauren-boebert-beetlejuice-musical-ejected/; NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/lauren-boebert-was-escorted-beetlejuice-show-denver-allegedly-causing-rcna104793] The usher wrote in his report that when he told them they would be trespassing, they told him to go get the police, and that in the lobby one of them said, and I am quoting the report, “Do you know who I am.” [SOURCE: Scripps News incident report via AOL: https://www.aol.com/footage-shows-rep-lauren-boebert-221918920.html]

And what did she say? She said she was guilty of “laughing and singing too loud.” Her campaign denied the vaping. [SOURCE: NPR: https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1199188010/lauren-boebert-theater-beetlejuice-denver] Then the surveillance video came out, and the video showed the vape pen and the smoke and the flash photos, before the show had even started. [SOURCE: Scripps via AOL, same URL] That is the whole woman, right there in ninety seconds of theater security footage. Tell the easy lie, and assume the tape will never surface. The tape always surfaces.

Her own party noticed. Republican county commissioners started lining up behind her primary challenger, and more than one of them said the Buell Theatre was the last straw. [SOURCE: Yahoo/WesternSlopeNow: https://news.yahoo.com/lauren-boebert-facing-defamation-lawsuit-231749545.html]

So in December of 2023 she did the most Boebert thing imaginable. She ran. Not from politics, from her own district. She announced she was abandoning the Western Slope seat she actually lived in and moving hundreds of miles across the state to run in a safer, open district. [SOURCE: Roll Call: https://rollcall.com/2023/12/28/boebert-still-faces-fight-after-district-switch/; Colorado Sun: https://coloradosun.com/2023/12/29/the-unaffiliated-20231229/] She called it a fresh start. I called it what it was. When the going got tough, she abandoned the people who elected her.

Now. The part she really does not want repeated.

While all of this was happening, we had taken her to federal court. Not the other way around. In 2023, American Muckrakers and I sued Lauren Boebert in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, because she had made false statements about us, and because she had threatened our donors, the people whose contributions make this work possible, with lawsuits for the crime of supporting independent reporting. [SOURCE: Colorado Newsline: https://coloradonewsline.com/2024/06/26/boebert-defamation-settlement-lawsuit-colorado/; complaint, D. Colo. 1:23-cv-01463: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67489406/american-muckrakers-pac-inc-v-boebert/]

On June 9, 2024, a federal magistrate judge, the Honorable Kathryn A. Starnella, issued her written opinion. And she found that Lauren Boebert defamed me. Five separate times. [SOURCE: Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/colorado-lauren-boebert-lawsuit-american-muckrackers-1918210] She agreed that our donors never should have been threatened, and she let our claim over those threats move forward. [SOURCE: Reason/Volokh: https://reason.com/volokh/2024/08/12/empty-threats-to-sue-donors-of-entity-that-allegedly-defamed-you-could-be-tortious/] The same opinion held that public advocacy websites like ours are public forums, a ruling other courts have since cited. [SOURCE: Doe v. Alwan briefing citing the opinion: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2025/01/Doe-v.-Alwan-MTD-file-stamped.pdf]

Sit with that for a second. The woman who got a restraining order to silence me, the woman who threatened the people who fund us, the woman who called us liars on television and on X, walked into federal court and walked out with a judge’s signature on a document that says she is the one who defamed somebody.

We settled later that month. The terms are confidential, and I am going to keep them that way. The case was dismissed with prejudice on July 8, 2024. [SOURCE: Colorado Newsline: https://coloradonewsline.com/2024/06/26/boebert-defamation-settlement-lawsuit-colorado/; docket order: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67489406/american-muckrakers-pac-inc-v-boebert/]

Vindication has a price. I paid it. Years of my life, my income, and my peace. [SOURCE: D.B. Wheeler, Feb 2026: https://www.americanmuckrakers.com/p/remember-our-june-2022-reporting] I would pay it again tomorrow.

So when people ask me why American Muckrakers is so entwined with Lauren Boebert, why we keep coming back to her, this is the answer. We did not pick a fight with a random congresswoman. We told the truth about a powerful person, she tried to make us pay for it, and a federal court told her she was the one in the wrong. That is not a grudge. That is the job. The job is to put the truth on the record and make it stick, no matter how much money or how many lawyers stand on the other side.

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She is up for reelection in 2026. She raised about seven hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars last year. [SOURCE: FEC committee C00728238: https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00728238/] She is not going anywhere.

Neither are we. Over the coming days, we’ll have more to say and will be doing everything we can to beat Boebert at her own game.

Join us, help fund our informational campaign against this menace: www.voteroi.com/support We need your help today.

DBW

About the Author

David B. Wheeler is President and Co-Founder of American Muckrakers, a public-interest accountability organization best known for exposing political hypocrisy, corruption, and misconduct. He has spent decades building organizations, working internationally, challenging powerful people, and occasionally making them wish they had chosen a quieter line of work. He believes in public records, hard evidence, civic courage, and the useful art of firing fools.

Disclaimer

The views expressed here are those of the author. This publication is for commentary, accountability, and public-interest reporting purposes. Nothing here should be taken as legal advice. Readers should evaluate the facts, review source materials when available, and reach their own conclusions.

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And here is the thing: Brian Bengs can win.

South Dakota voters are independent-minded. They know when Washington is broken. They know when the two-party food fight is not solving the cost of living, rural healthcare, veterans’ issues, corruption, or the basic problem of politicians answering to party bosses instead of real people. Brian’s campaign cuts straight through that noise. His message is simple: not red, not blue, just South Dakota.

He is already on the ballot. He has run statewide before. He has name recognition, military credibility, legal experience, and a serious independent lane in a state where voters are tired of being taken for granted. This is not a vanity campaign. This is a real race, and the way Brian wins is by building the biggest independent voter-to-voter effort South Dakota has seen in years.

So today, we are going to talk about his background, why this race matters, how an Independent can beat the machine, and what people across South Dakota and across the country can do right now to help.

You can learn more about Brian at bengsforsouthdakota.com.

And you can donate directly through VoteROI at voteroi.com/bb.

Brian Bengs is here. Let’s get into it.

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It’s Brian Bengs Week on American Muck, and this episode of Muck You features David Wheeler in conversation with Travis Paulson, a farmer and ag entrepreneur from Wallace, South Dakota.

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This is the kind of conversation we need more of: grounded, rural, practical, and focused on what South Dakotans are actually facing. Travis brings the perspective of someone who understands agriculture, small communities, hard work, and the gap between what people need and what Washington usually delivers.

Brian Bengs is running for U.S. Senate in South Dakota as an Independent, offering voters a serious alternative to the same tired party machinery. His campaign is about service, independence, accountability, and giving South Dakotans a voice that is not owned by either political party.

Learn more about Brian at bengsforsouthdakota.com.

Donate to help Brian Bengs at voteroi.com/bb.

Donate to Brian Bengs Here

Listen to the full episode here or wherever your get your pods.

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In this episode, David Wheeler continues our series on Brian Bengs’ independent campaign for U.S. Senate in South Dakota with guest retired US Navy Captain Scott Butler.

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The conversation looks at why Bengs’ campaign matters, what an independent candidacy can offer in a state dominated by party politics, and how South Dakotans might respond to a candidate running outside the usual partisan machinery. Bengs brings a background as a military veteran, attorney, educator, and public servant, and his campaign raises a larger question: can voters who are tired of the two-party trap still build a serious alternative?

This is one in a series of conversations examining Brian Bengs, the South Dakota Senate race, and the possibility of a more independent politics in 2026. Listen to the epidsode below or on your favorite pod distributor like Apple or Amazon or Spotify.

Please support Brian’s campaign here: www.voteroi.com/bb or at bengsforsouthdakota.com

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This episode is part of Brian Bengs Week, our focused push to lift up one of the clearest, most serious, and most needed voices in South Dakota politics.

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Brian Bengs is running to bring accountability, decency, and common sense back into public service. This conversation is about why that matters, why South Dakota deserves better, and how ordinary people can help build something stronger than the noise.

Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And please donate today at bengsforsouthdakota.com or voteroi.com/bb.

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Nathan did not come on MUCK YOU! to summarize the obvious. He came on to talk about the actual path and his incredible career.

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Brian Bengs is running as an independent against Mike Rounds, and that matters. In South Dakota, the Democratic label carries weight that can bury even a strong candidate before voters hear the message. Bengs has a cleaner lane: veteran, lawyer, former professor, independent, and fed up with Washington.

That is the heart of the race. Bengs does not need to persuade South Dakota to become blue. He needs to give voters permission to fire Mike Rounds without feeling like they are joining a national Democratic project.

The Nebraska example matters here. Democrats there appear to be making room for independent Dan Osborn rather than splitting the anti-incumbent vote. South Dakota should look hard at that model.

That is why this race deserves attention now. If the non-Republican vote is split, Mike Rounds benefits. If the race becomes Bengs versus Rounds, South Dakota gets a real contest.

Listen to the full episode below, or find MUCK YOU! on your favorite podcast network.

MUCK YOU! Nathan Daschle

And please donate to Brian Bengs at: voteroi.com/bb

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Zac did not come on to sell magic. He came on to talk math, structure, voters, and the hard truth Democrats often avoid in red states: sometimes the Democratic label is not the vehicle that can win.

That matters right now in South Dakota.

Brian Bengs is running for U.S. Senate as an independent against Republican incumbent Mike Rounds. Bengs is a veteran, attorney, former professor, and former 2022 Democratic nominee. This time, he is not running as a Democrat. He is running as what many South Dakotans actually are: independent, frustrated, and tired of being forced into the same broken red-versus-blue trench war.

As Bengs has put it, his message is simple: “Not Red. Not Blue. Just You.”

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That is not consultant fluff. That is the whole theory of the race.

In a state like South Dakota, a Democrat can spend a year proving he is not a caricature. An independent can spend that same year talking about Mike Rounds, corruption, rural hospitals, veterans, working people, and the fact that Washington has stopped listening to normal human beings.

That is why Nebraska matters.

In Nebraska, Democrats appear to understand the assignment. Cindy Burbank won the Democratic Senate primary, but she has said she will step aside in the general election to support independent Dan Osborn against Republican Pete Ricketts. That is not weakness. That is strategy.

It recognizes something obvious: if the goal is to beat a Republican incumbent in a deep-red state, the strongest non-Republican candidate should get a clear shot.

South Dakota Democrats should look hard at that model.

If Julian Beaudion stays in the race, the anti-Rounds vote gets split. That helps Mike Rounds. Period.

If Beaudion steps aside, Bengs becomes the clean alternative: the independent veteran against the Republican incumbent. That is a race people can understand. That is a race donors can invest in. That is a race national media can explain in one sentence. That is a race that gives disaffected Republicans, independents, Democrats, and “I hate both parties” voters permission to land in the same place.

Zac’s larger point was not complicated. Winning red states requires meeting voters where they are, not where national party committees wish they were. In some states, the Democratic brand is an anchor. In those places, the job is not to protect the brand. The job is to beat the bad incumbent.

Brian Bengs can do that.

But only if the race becomes Bengs versus Rounds.

Nebraska may have just shown the way. South Dakota should pay attention.

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About the Author

David B. Wheeler is President and Co-Founder of American Muckrakers, the group best known for helping expose Madison Cawthorn and Mark Robinson. He has spent decades building organizations, working across the world, raising hell, and trying to fire fools who badly need firing.

Disclaimer

The views expressed here are those of the author and American Muckrakers. We use public records, public reporting, opinion, satire, and good old-fashioned muckraking to hold powerful people accountable.

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American Muckrakers is spending a week highlighting Brian Bengs for U.S. Senate in South Dakota because this is exactly the kind of race that deserves more national attention.

Brian is not a manufactured politician. He is a veteran of the Air Force and the Navy, a public servant, a teacher, a husband, and a South Dakotan who understands that leadership is supposed to be about duty, courage, and service. At a time when too many campaigns are built around noise, grievance, and loyalty tests, Brian represents something cleaner and stronger: competence, character, and a willingness to put country ahead of party games.

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And this race is not some symbolic exercise. It is winnable.

Only 35% of South Dakota voters believe Mike Rounds deserves to be re-elected. That is a pretty crappy number for a guy who has spent his life in politics. You would think he would have delivered more for South Dakotans by now, but that is not what the numbers show.

When South Dakota voters hear Brian’s story, the race changes. Brian is an Independent, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, a JAG, and a Park Ranger. When voters compare that record of service to Mike Rounds’ political record, the race flips.

Brian takes a 2-point lead: 44% to 42%.

That is why American Muckrakers is dedicating a Brian Bengs Highlight Week. We want people to hear directly from those who know Brian best. Not just consultants. Not just campaign talking points. Real people. People who have seen his character up close.

We will be hosting guests on MUCK YOU! who know Brian well, beginning with his wife, Jennifer Bengs. Jennifer will be our first episode because no one can speak more personally to who Brian is, what drives him, and why this race matters. Voters deserve to know the person behind the campaign, and Jennifer can help tell that story with honesty, clarity, and heart.

This is also about action. Good candidates cannot win without resources. Brian can legitimately win this race, but only if he has the resources to stay on the air, reach South Dakota voters, and defend his lead.

That is what this deadline is about.

South Dakota deserves a real race. Brian Bengs deserves the support needed to make that happen. Every donation helps him reach more voters, build momentum, and show that people across the country are paying attention.

That is why we are asking folks to donate to Brian’s campaign at:

www.voteroi.com/bb

Brian Bengs is worth highlighting. He is worth hearing from. And he is worth supporting. Listen and let us know what do you think about Brian. Does South Dakota matter?

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I started American Muckrakers with Col Moe Davis in 2021, to do something simple and unfashionable: tell the truth about powerful people who count on you not paying attention. Today we are taking that further. I want to introduce you to Muckrakers.Today, and to a brand new series we are calling the Rogues’ Gallery.

Here is the idea. Every week, we put one rogue under the light. A politician, an oligarch, a fixer, a fraud. We lay out what they did, who got hurt, and where the money went. All of it sourced. All of it linked. No spin, no both-sides cowardice, and no asking permission from the people we are reporting on.

The muckrakers of a century ago did not have podcasts or a website. They had a notebook, a printing press, and a spine. We have the first two covered. The third one is on me.

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Our first rogue: Vladimir Putin

For the debut episode, I went straight at the biggest one. He’s a bee in my bonnet that I can’t wait to be gone.

Picture a split screen. On one side, Tuesday, June 2nd, Putin launched one of the largest barrages of the entire war: seventy-three missiles, eight of them hypersonic, and six hundred fifty-six drones in a single night. Apartment blocks in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Poltava. Twenty-two civilians dead. A hundred thirty-eight wounded. Four medical facilities hit.

On the other side of that screen, the very next morning, the same man cut the ribbon on a glittering economic forum in St. Petersburg. Champagne and panels. They used to call it the Russian Davos, back when anyone still showed up. This year the guest list was far-right influencers and a Saudi energy minister, while black smoke rose over the port behind the delegates from a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil terminal that same morning.

That is the whole con in one image. He is killing civilians on Tuesday and toasting investors on Wednesday, and he is counting on the world to only watch the Wednesday.

The numbers tell the rest. Le Monde puts the total casualties of this war, both sides, at more than five hundred twenty-five thousand killed and wounded, and it climbs every single day. When Zelensky sent a letter proposing a meeting in a neutral country to end it, Putin’s answer was that he saw, quote, no point. He will find a point for seventy-three missiles. A handshake is a bridge too far.

Listen to the full episode via the link below, then go read the whole written piece, fully sourced, at muckrakers.today.

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Why this needs you

Accountability journalism does not have a billionaire sugar daddy or a hedge fund behind it. It has you. Muckrakers.Today exists because supporters and donors decided the truth was worth paying for when the people in power would rather it stayed buried.

If this is the kind of work you want more of, here is how to help, and it takes about thirty seconds:

Subscribe to this Substack so every new Rogue lands in your inbox the day it drops. Share the Putin episode with one person who needs to hear it. And if you are able, chip in at americanmuckrakers.com/donate so we can keep the lights on and the reporting coming.

Every dollar goes to putting the next rogue under the light.

Next week’s rogue: Beetlejuice Boebert

We are not staying overseas. Next week we come home, and we train the light on a real piece of work: Lauren “Beetlejuice” Boebert. You already know the greatest hits. We are going to give you the full record, with receipts, the same way we did Putin.

Subscribe now so you do not miss it.

DBW

Listen to Rogues' Gallery Here

About the Author

David B. Wheeler is President of American Muckrakers PAC, Inc. and founder of VoteROI, a donor intelligence platform built on 86.9 million FEC records covering federal races from 2000 to 2026. American Muckrakers has been firing fools since 2021.

Disclaimer

Paid for by American Muckrakers PAC II (americanmuckrakers.com). Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Donations made to American Muckrakers, Inc. are not deductible for federal or state tax purposes.

This essay constitutes protected speech and commentary, opinion, and advocacy on matters of public concern under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is not a legal pleading, sworn statement, affidavit, or admission of fact and anyone that says otherwise is full of shit.

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Lauren Boebert just attacked me again and lied. We beat her in Denver Federal Court.

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She called me a “NC blogger.” Fine. I have been called worse by better people.

But here is what matters: years later, she is still talking about American Muckrakers. Why? Because accountability work gets under the skin of powerful people who are used to operating without consequences.

American Muckrakers exists to investigate public officials, candidates, political operatives, and hypocrites who think voters will never see the receipts.

We need funds for public records requests, research, legal review, document digging, source development, and getting our findings in front of voters.

If Lauren Boebert wants to remind people we exist, we should make it useful.

Donate today to help American Muckrakers keep digging and fund a billboard or two!

David Wheeler

PS: We sued her and the Judge agreed with part of our lawsuit. Boebert is lying, again. Also, for the record, we spoke with CNN and Boebert refused. Wonder why? Read the Judge’s ruling here.

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We built something new.

And we are proud of it.

American Muckrakers has a new addition to the family: Muckrakers.Today.

It is a new home for accountability reporting, sharp commentary, public records, political truth-telling, and stories that deserve sunlight.

The work is growing. The stakes are rising. Power moves fast.

So do we.

A New Home for Accountability

Muckrakers.Today is designed to be fast, clear, useful, and easy to share.

It brings together the reporting and commentary our readers care about most: corruption, hypocrisy, public records, democracy, courts, campaigns, money, power, and the people trying to hide from accountability.

Some stories will come from us. Some will come from trusted outside reporting. Some will come from tips, leads, records, and readers who notice what others miss.

That is how this work moves forward:

One document.
One lead.
One question.
One citizen who refuses to look away.

Why We Built It

American Muckrakers has never waited around for permission.

We investigate.
We document.
We publish.
We hold power accountable.

Muckrakers.Today gives us another platform to do that work every single day. It is cleaner, faster, more flexible, and built for the speed of the moment.

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This is a launch, not a finish line.

Visit Muckrakers.Today and tell us what works, what does not, and what you want to see next.

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We are building this with our readers, not just for our readers.

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Now comes the direct part.

If you believe in this work, please donate today:

voteroi.com/support

Public records cost money. Legal review costs money. Technology, research, hosting, data tools, investigations, travel, document work, and basic operations all cost money.

If you want independent muckraking, help fund it. If you want more public records work, help fund it. If you want us to keep chasing the stories powerful people hope will die quietly, help fund it.

A donation is not just a thank-you.

It is ammunition for the next fight.

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We are also looking for sponsors and are now open to taking ad orders for Muckrakers.Today.

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To everyone who has already donated, shared our work, sent a tip, forwarded an article, defended us, challenged us, or stood with us when the heat came down: thank you.

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The mission is not.

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Especially then.

Visit Muckrakers.Today. Send us your feedback or comment below. Share it with people who still care about democracy and accountability.

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Let’s build this together.

About the Author

David B. Wheeler is President and Co-Founder of American Muckrakers, a public-interest accountability organization best known for exposing political hypocrisy, corruption, and misconduct. He has spent decades building organizations, working internationally, challenging powerful people, and occasionally making them wish they had chosen a quieter line of work. He believes in public records, hard evidence, civic courage, and the useful art of firing fools.

Disclaimer

The views expressed here are those of the author. This publication is for commentary, accountability, and public-interest reporting purposes. Nothing here should be taken as legal advice. Readers should evaluate the facts, review source materials when available, and reach their own conclusions.

American Muckrakers just filed another amendment in our ongoing Federal Election Commission complaint against Lauren Boebert, and this newest filing raises one very simple question:

Why did Beetlejuice Boebert’s campaign spend $35,000 tied to a Kid Rock rodeo concert weekend in Texas?

According to FEC records, Team Boebert Fundraising Committee paid Professional Bull Riders LLC:

$35,000 for “EVENT SITE RENTAL/TICKETS”

That payment came right before Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

And here’s where things get interesting.

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Public VIP Suite Packages for the Event Cost… $35,000

Publicly advertised hospitality packages for the event included:

• luxury skyboxes,

• VIP entrances,

• catered food and alcohol,

• premium seating,

• private hospitality suites,

• parking passes,

• and exclusive club access.

Some premium packages were publicly marketed in the exact same pricing range as Boebert’s campaign expenditure:

$15,000–$35,000

What an incredible coincidence.

Because when normal people hear “tickets,” they think:

• county fair tickets,

• nosebleed concert seats,

• maybe a baseball game.

Lauren Boebert apparently hears “tickets” and thinks: private luxury suite with Kid Rock screaming into a microphone while donor cash pays the tab.

Boebert Keeps Asking Supporters for Money While Living Like a MAGA Influencer

This is the same Lauren Boebert who constantly emails supporters pretending she’s some struggling anti-establishment warrior fighting for “real Americans.”

Meanwhile:

• luxury resort expenses show up in filings,

• questionable reimbursements keep surfacing,

• and now there’s a $35,000 rodeo entertainment expense tied to a Kid Rock event weekend.

In a previous amendment to our FEC complaint, American Muckrakers documented more than $12,000 in campaign spending at a Palm Beach luxury resort, including charges made on dates where Boebert publicly appeared to be somewhere else entirely.

At some point this stops looking like “campaign activity” and starts looking like a divorced mee-ma speed-running a midlife crisis with donor credit cards.

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We Filed the Amendment Because Somebody Has To

The political media treats Boebert like a reality TV character because outrage gets clicks.

We treat her like a public official handling donor money.

That’s the difference.

American Muckrakers is demanding investigators subpoena:

• suite contracts,

• guest lists,

• ticket records,

• hospitality invoices,

• parking records,

• and communications related to the event.

We want to know:

• Who attended?

• Did family members benefit?

• Were friends or insiders invited?

• Was donor money used for booze and hospitality?

• Was this legitimate campaign activity or just another Boebert grift operation?

Because federal law is clear:
campaign funds cannot legally be converted into personal use.

The Boebert Grift Never Stops Unless People Start Paying Attention

Lauren Boebert built her political brand screaming about elites while vacuuming up donations from working-class conservatives.

Then the filings come out and suddenly everybody’s paying for:

• Palm Beach resorts,

• luxury entertainment,

• VIP hospitality,

• and a Kid Rock rodeo weekend in Texas.

That’s why American Muckrakers keeps digging.

Because somebody has to follow the money while the rest of Washington treats this circus like entertainment.

We’re not stopping.

And if you want us to continue exposing grifters who treat campaign donors like an ATM machine with a cowboy hat on top, support our work today.

Donate Here:

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Every dollar helps fund:

• investigations,

• FEC complaints,

• legal review,

• public records requests,

• research,

• and accountability work nationwide.

Read the full set of complaints here:

2nd Amended Complaint Vs Beetlejuice Lauren Boebert Mur 8930 (1)

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About the Author

David B. Wheeler is President and Co-Founder of American Muckrakers and a candidate for Clerk of Superior Court in Mitchell County, North Carolina. His views are his own, and written directly by David, with spell checking and minor edits with the help of his AI buddy. An essay or story is never independently generated by AI and posted. That would be just stupid. David successfully sued Beetlejuice Boebert for defamation in 2024.

Disclaimer

Paid for by American Muckrakers Independent Expenditure PAC. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

This essay constitutes protected speech and commentary, opinion, and advocacy on matters of public concern under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is not a legal pleading, sworn statement, affidavit, or admission of fact, and it does not purport to describe evidence, discovery, or litigation strategy. This commentary is not intended to influence any pending judicial proceeding.

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In the summer of 1840, the Whig party ran a presidential candidate named William Henry Harrison against the sitting Democratic president, Martin Van Buren. Van Buren had won in 1836. He had Andrew Jackson’s blessing. He had the Democratic Party machine. He had four years of incumbency.

The Whigs had Harrison, an aging general with a reputation for living in a log cabin, and they had a campaign tune called “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.”

That tune is what people sang at every rally, every barbecue, every cider party from Maine to Mississippi. It named the candidates. It mocked the opposition. It had a chorus you could remember after one hearing and shout while drunk. The Whigs handed it out in pamphlets and got it picked up by traveling fiddlers.

Van Buren had no song.

Harrison won 234 electoral votes to 60.

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We were early supporters of Rep. Jolly and we’re in for the long haul to help him win. But we do need your help now, not in October.

American Muckrakers had him on MUCK YOU! because we saw what is now becoming obvious: he is doing the hard work it takes to win.

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Not the performative work.
Not the cable-news work.
The real work.

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It is about eyelids.

When a person lies, the way they blink changes. Not a little. Measurably. And it has been documented in peer-reviewed psychology journals since the 1970s.

We ran the numbers on a recent Lauren Boebert sit-down with Newsmax (the topic was Donald Trump’s threats and the Thomas Massie endorsement). We tagged every blink. There were 138 of them in roughly 9 minutes on camera. Her rate worked out to 38 blinks per minute. Honest people sit closer to 15 to 20.

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The Countdown to Accountability

It’s been a bleak couple days. So, we built a countdown clock as a light at the end of the tunnel.

It ticks down to January 3, 2027 at noon ET. That’s the moment the 120th Congress is sworn in. When Democrats win back the House and Senate this November, that’s when the hammer drops on Donald Trump and every co-conspirator who looted the treasury, buried the Epstein files, and funneled taxpayer cash to themselves and their cronies.

Until then, every day on this clock is a day they’re still getting away with it.

Watch it. Embed it. Share it. Then get to work.

👉 voteroi.com/countdown

Drop the iframe on your site, Substack, Wix, or Squarespace. One line of code. For X, Facebook, LinkedIn: share the link. The preview card carries the message.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

DBW

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Democrats made giving easy.

That was useful.

Then we confused easy with smart.

As we argued in Stop Donating Blind, the central problem in Democratic fundraising is not that donors lack passion. It is that too much passion is routed through too little strategy. Money moves fast. Judgment moves slowly. Consultants, unfortunately, invoice at the speed of light.

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Politics attracts two kinds of fools.

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