Koch brothers’ advocacy group courts far-right Republicans it vowed to thwart

Eric Schmitt, a Missouri senator, and Andrew Ogles, a congressman from Tennessee, were recently invited to AFP Action’s meeting, as the network claims to move away from Maga politicians. Photograph: Sarah Silbiger/Reuters

At an event in California last weekend, the Koch family political network announced it would move away from Donald Trump, and invest in congressional elections in a bid to break from the far-right, Trump-supporting politicians who have come to the fore in recent years.

Americans for Prosperity Action, founded by Republican megadonors Charles Koch and David Koch, who died in 2019, would be seeking to “turn the page on the past”, it said, in remarks that were covered extensively, and favorably, in the US media.