July 24, 2023 11:43 AM UTC

Heidi Ganahl Is Back To Recruit You Into Her "Patriot" MLM

• 16 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The 2022 Republican nominee for governor of Colorado, Heidi Ganahl, has been working to re-establish her brand after losing to Gov. Jared Polis by almost 20 points last year in what’s generally considered to be one of the worst statewide campaign in the state’s history. Last spring, Ganahl re-launched the podcast she used as a thinly-pretensed campaign vehicle during her long indecisive pre-campaign period, and in May began teasing a major new initiative she was part of.

In late June, Ganahl went public with the details, and…well, here it is:

Hello fellow Patriots! Something the Ganahl household has done to fight the woke agenda is switching our everyday products from woke corporations (no more Target and we are sticking strong to that) to ALL American-made manufacturing. Let me introduce you to the America-first parallel economy!

We are shifting our spending on regular everyday items from cheap CCP manufacturers to clean, American-made, American-worker manufacturing. So far, we’ve loved all the products and nothing feels better than knowing that our money is being well spent in alignment with our values. Want to learn more? Head to patriotswitch.com/heidi 🇺🇸

What’s “Patriot Switch,” you ask? As the Daily Beast reported over a year ago, it’s nothing new:

Scott McKay, a Q-backer who wields a tomahawk on stage and openly fantasizes about the murder of Democrats in his videos, appears at QAnon rallies across the country under the name “Patriot Streetfighter.”

In posts on the messaging app Telegram in March [2022], McKay urged his fans to prepare for the launch of a mysterious project called “Operation Tomahawk.” Revealing little about the project, he promised that he was launching an “economic warfare platform” that would take on liberal corporations and “choke them out.”

“We are going to have millions and then tens of millions of people participating in this,” McKay declared in a video.

McKay’s Operation Tomahawk turned out to be Patriot Switch, another direct-selling business based on multi-level marketing. [Pols emphasis] This time, QAnon followers are being urged to buy their products through Patriot Switch, thereby “supporting companies that promote freedom.” In a video to his followers, McKay promised that they would earn commissions by recruiting new people to sell through the company.

Patriot Switch is what’s known as a multi-level marketing operation, similar to well-known longstanding outfits like Amway and Herbalife whose business model depends as much or more on the recruitment of new salespeople than the actual selling of products. These businesses are notorious for promising large incomes from a home-based business, when in truth only a small fraction of participants make any money at all. More often, “business owners” are manipulated into stocking up on products they don’t need to meet sales goals and give up in frustration after losing thousands of dollars.

What makes “Patriot Switch” different? Well, it’s a multi-level marketing scheme for patriots! The organizers at the top of the pyramid appear to have simply draped the same old scheme with culture-warrior MAGA rhetoric to deflect from the whys and wherefores of the business model. We’ll concede it’s a novel approach that might catch even some aware of MLM scams in the abstract off their guard. In Ganahl’s case, it appears that she started her own Patriot Switch affiliate a couple of months after “America’s Mom,” far-right Mesa County whacktivist and one-time campaign manager for Rep. Lauren Boebert Sherronna Bishop. Depending on how it’s arranged, that could make Ganahl a part of Sherronna Bishop’s “downline,” or subordinate salespeople who make money for those up the pyramid.

Either way, it’s notable that the 2022 Republican nominee for governor of Colorado has turned to pushing one of the oldest and most notorious business schemes in American history, albeit with a new MAGA “patriot” twist. After Ganahl built and sold off a very successful dogsitting business before her run for governor, we have to call this a sad descent into a much less credible way to earn a living.

The only thing we can add is that the MAGA movement, which Ganahl proudly spoke for as “the MAGA candidate Colorado has been waiting for,” was the victim of one of the greatest scams in American history. That makes them an easy mark for being scammed again and again.