Democrats are returning to a strategy that served them well in the 2022 midterm elections, choosing to boost more hard-right candidates in an effort to ensure an easier general election.

This strategy usually takes the form of covertly funding more hard-right candidates or outwardly attacking them in the primary, attacks that are worn as a mark of pride by said candidate and endear voters more to them.

Here are some Republican candidates who have received a boost from Democrats in their primaries:

Bernie Moreno

Democrats are boosting Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman, in the Ohio Senate primary largely through attack ads promoting his hard-right credentials. While the ads will diminish his standing in the eyes of Democrats, the attacks have boosted Moreno’s standing, showing him to voters as a true Republican being attacked by liberals.

The latest ad was bought by Duty and Country, which is supported by the Senate Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC, for $879,000. Moreno is aware that the intent of the ad was to boost him as a possibly easier candidate to beat, but his team said the effort would backfire.

“Democrats constantly underestimate the America First movement at their own peril,” Reagan McCarthy, communications director for Moreno, told the New York Times in a statement. “They thought President Trump would be easy to beat in 2016 and then they got their clocks cleaned when he demolished Hillary Clinton. The same thing is going to happen to Sherrod Brown this year.”

Steve Garvey

In the California Senate race, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and his Democratic allies spent $11.2 million solely on boosting Garvey, largely in an effort to box out his intraparty rival — Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA). California has a unique “jungle” primary process, in which every candidate runs and the top two candidates go on to the general, no matter the party.

The ads touted Garvey as too conservative, winning him support among the deep blue state’s significant conservative minority.

When blasted by Porter, Schiff was unfazed.

“She’s entitled to run any kind of campaign she wants,” Schiff said with a smile. “We’re running our campaign, and I’m not advising other candidates on how to run theirs.”

The strategy paid off perhaps too well — Garvey and Schiff were neck and neck in polling results and will proceed to November.

Tim Sheehy

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is considered the most vulnerable Senate Democrat this cycle as he fights to hold on to his seat in red Montana.

To give him a boost, a group with ties to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) started an effort to attack Tim Sheehy, a veteran and “America First” candidate challenging Tester. The Facebook page “Treasure State Truths” purchased several ads that boosted Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who was considering fighting Sheehy for the GOP nomination.

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Besides the ads, Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC also helped the Last Best Place PAC spend millions of dollars on attacking Sheehy.

“This confirmed what we knew all along that Chuck Schumer is spending millions of dollars interfering in Montana’s election to tear down combat veteran Tim Sheehy because they know he’s a strong conservative who will win in November, and they want the weakest candidate in this race who will give Two-Faced Tester another victory in November,” a spokesperson for Sheehy said at the time. “The career politicians back in D.C. are terrified of conservative outsider Tim Sheehy because he’s going to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump to drain the swamp, save our country, and put America and Montana First!”