DENVER — A shadowy new group is sending misleading mailers to voters in a closely contested Colorado congressional district as part of a nationwide effort to boost third-party candidates and attack their Republican opponents.

The group, called Our Heritage Matters, was registered just after a federal reporting deadline earlier this month, meaning it will not have to disclose any donors until after the Nov. 3 election. Since Oct. 20, it has spent more than $1.2 million to influence 10 races across the country — including Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, where the spending has gone to boost a Libertarian candidate and attack U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans.

Nearly all of the targeted races are seats held by Republicans. Like Colorado’s 8th, the group’s cash elsewhere has gone either to bolster third-party or independent candidates in each race or to attack the Republican candidate.

The group has not spent money in any of the races for or against the Democratic candidates, federal election records show.

In the 8th District, the group has spent nearly $78,000 in the past week on advertising to boost the Libertarian candidate, Dave Wood, and attack Evans. Evans is locked in an expensive race with Democratic challenger Manny Rutinel.

Evans, a conservative who has closely hewed to President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, has relentlessly attacked Democrats as he tries to ward off Rutinel, who in turn has accused Evans of being fully in line with Trump.

But a mailer sent by Our Heritage Matters accuses Evans of being too liberal — without providing any evidence or citations to news articles or past votes — and it shows a doctored image of him riding a donkey, a symbol of the Democratic Party.

Evans’ campaign did not return a message seeking comment Monday.

The 8th District, created following the 2020 census, is Colorado’s most closely drawn district. In both of its previous contests, the winner was decided by fewer than 3,000 votes. The margins are so fine that a third-party candidate — like a Libertarian — can influence the winner. In 2022, Democrat Yadira Caraveo beat her Republican opponent by 1,632 votes, while the Libertarian candidate earned more than 9,200 votes.

In 2024, when Evans won, he’d struck a deal to keep his would-be Libertarian opponent out of the race.

Wood, this year’s Libertarian candidate, said he received the mailer. He criticized and disavowed it.

“I tried to think about it when I was waking up, ‘What the hell are they trying to do?’ ” he said. “… Theoretically, it looks like Democrats wanting to take votes away from a Republican. But, so — is their target audience Republicans? Are they trying to say to Republicans, ‘You don’t really know Gabe Evans; he’s really like a Democrat’?”

Little information about Our Heritage Matters is publicly available. A website for a group of the same name, which was created earlier this month, provides no indication about its purpose or backers; it includes only vague statements that are little more than pablum.

The treasurer listed on the group’s federal registration form is Mike McCauley, a Utah-based political consultant and accountant who has worked for Republican causes in the past, including the Colorado Republican Party.

Messages sent to McCauley and an email listed on the group’s website were not returned Monday. The Post could not find any state in which Our Heritage Matters was registered as a company.

PACs have tried to bolster outsider candidates in past elections. In 2022 and 2024, Democratic groups sought to raise the profile of more right-wing candidates in Republican primaries because they thought they would be easier to beat, according to the Colorado Sun.

The spending in CD8 is part of a broader pattern by the group, boosting longshot third-party candidates in races that are expected to be close contests between Democrats and Republicans. The group has also spent money attacking Republicans or bolstering their outsider opponents in closely watched congressional or Senate races in Ohio, Texas, Kentucky, Kansas, South Carolina and Montana.

All the money has been spent on advertising or direct mail from two companies: Chase Grove LLC and Good Way Associates. Both were registered in Delaware on Oct. 6, using a company-registration service. That’s a common tactic for groups seeking to hide their ownership.

In most cases, the group’s outside spending has backed Libertarians, alongside one independent candidate and another from the Constitution Party.

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