A New Republican Group Targets Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Liberal

A prominent Republican campaign-finance lawyer has started a new super PAC to attack Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a liberal aligned with Democrats, the latest sign of concern among party members that Mr. Kennedy, who is running as an independent, may be poised to take votes away from former President Donald J. Trump.

The group, set up by Charles Gantt, is funneling money to Republican operatives and funding paid ads and mail, including a campaign that praises his position on abortion rights.

“Pro-choice. Progressive. Democrat,” the piece of direct mail, sent to a Democratic voter in Philadelphia and viewed by The New York Times, reads in bold letters.

It’s a tactic similar to one increasingly deployed by Republicans and Democrats in recent cycles, in both general elections and primaries: Strategists sometimes target candidates in subversive ways, seemingly pitching their opponent to the other side in order to make them less attractive to their own voters.

The new outside group, called SAG PAC, was incorporated last month by Mr. Gantt, who is also the treasurer and secretary of a pro-Trump nonprofit with similar initials: Securing American Greatness.

Mr. Gantt did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Mr. Kennedy has not responded, either.

The super PAC has yet to disclose its donors, but it has spent about $2.2 million on paid ads and mail that seem to be highlighting positions of Mr. Kennedy that would not only entice Republicans flirting with supporting him to return to Mr. Trump, but also to make him more well-liked by Democrats and, in doing so, cut into the support for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ likely nominee.

The group’s website is designed to give the impression that it is just another