A third-party candidate reportedly recruited by Democratic operatives to run as a “spoiler” for the Republican running against U.S. Rep. Angie Craig has dropped out of the race.

Thomas Bowman, 71, was running as a “constitutional conservative” in the 2nd Congressional District, but now he’s backing out of the race and endorsing Craig’s Republican opponent Joe Teirab. His name will remain on the ballot.

Bowman entered the race after being recruited by Patriots Run Project, a secretive group with ties to Democrats recruiting right-wing candidates in competitive races across the U.S., the Associated Press reported.

Bowman said the group reached out to him about running in the south metro’s 2nd District after he was vocal about his conservative politics on Facebook. While he was aware of reporting on the national recruitment effort last month, he initially did not want to leave the race, saying he hadn’t “done anything wrong.”But nearly a month later, he’s changed his mind. Bowman on Thursday said his decision came after he learned more about the national recruitment efforts.

“It was the corruption that pushed me over the edge,” he said in an interview. “Because otherwise, I might take on Joe, but when I realized that I’d been set up anyway it’s not encouraging.”

Bowman said he hadn’t been contacted by Republicans before and decided to reach out to the Teirab campaign on his own.

“It appeared that we were working against each other toward the same goal,” said Bowman, noting Teirab shared his conservative views. “I talked to him, and he seems to be on track with what I believe, mostly. There’s a few things that I might, I might change from my point of view, but none of us thinks exactly the same.”

Bowman, who is disabled following a kidney transplant, told the AP earlier this year that Patriots Run Project had helped him gather signatures and that he couldn’t have gotten on the ballot without their help. The group had suggested he run in Craig’s district.

On Thursday he said he hasn’t heard from Patriots Run Project since he got on the ballot earlier this year.

Teirab’s campaign announced Bowman’s withdrawal from the race and endorsement in a Thursday news release, where he lauded the third-party candidate for bowing out.

“This kind of deceptive and manipulative behavior from the Democrats is a new low and has no place in American politics,” Teirab said.

Craig’s campaign says it didn’t know Democrat-aligned groups were recruiting conservative candidates. There is no evidence of any tie between the national groups and the campaign.

“The first we heard of Thomas Bowman’s candidacy was when he filed with the (Federal Election Commission) in April,” campaign spokesperson Katie Kelsh said in September. ”The campaign has no knowledge of how he got on the ballot.”

It’s not the first time third-party candidates have been accused of running as spoilers in the Second Congressional District. In the 2022 and 2020 elections, Craig faced challengers from the state’s Legal Marijuana Now Party — both who faced accusations of ties to Republicans and died before Election Day.