Who Sent the ‘MAGA Woerner’ Text?

[I received the following from an independent reliable source.]

On September 4, 2026, voters in the 113th Assembly District received a mass text message attacking Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner. The message branded Woerner “MAGA” and paired a doctored photo of her with Rep. Elise Stefanik, Senator Dan Stec and Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh.

The text described Woerner as pro-gun, pro-Israel and pro-Stefanik. It then urged recipients to vote for Thomas Kenny, who is running against Woerner on the Working Families Party and “No Kings” lines.

Kenny, 22, has faced questions about his candidacy all year. He was a Conservative Party member until February, when he switched his registration to the Working Families Party just ahead of a legal deadline and petitioned onto its line unopposed. Kenny has denied that he is running as a spoiler.

No “Paid for by,” no reported spending

The message carried no “Paid for by” line. New York Election Law § 14-106 requires political communications, including paid text messages, to name the committee that paid for them.

Kenny’s own filings don’t answer the question either. As of October 24, his campaign had reported no expenses and no outside donations. The only money on record is $5,500 Kenny says he put in himself.

Mass texts to thousands of voters aren’t free. Someone paid for this one, and it doesn’t show up on Kenny’s books.

What the image metadata shows

The image attached to the text carried a wealth of embedded metadata. It lists the image’s creator as Brandon Acres, working within a design team labeled “Allen1572’s Team.”

That name matters, because Brandon Acres works for Allen Caruso, the Republican running against Woerner.

Who is Brandon Acres?

Acres is one of the best-paid people on Caruso’s campaign. According to New York Focus, he collected nearly $8,000 as a campaign worker. Caruso’s campaign then paid $100,000 for professional services to Anderson Strategies, a new company Acres launched. In total, that’s more than $100,000.

The relationship goes beyond consulting. Politico reported that Acres is Caruso’s longtime business partner, and a 2016 Facebook post by Caruso’s mother described Acres as her son’s boyfriend at the time. Acres did not respond to New York Focus’s questions.

Not the first trail back to Caruso’s team

The text isn’t the first Kenny material traced to Acres. New York Focus found that four graphics on Kenny’s campaign website came from a Canva account in Acres’s name, the same account behind five graphics on Caruso’s website.

The two sites share a second digital fingerprint. The Squarespace account that built Kenny’s website was created on February 5, 2025, at 1:29:34 a.m. An account tied to Acres, who is listed as an author on Caruso’s site, has a creation timestamp matching to the second.

Then there’s Venmo. Earlier this week, Kenny’s account listed just four “friends.” One was Everett Noakes, whom New York Focus identified as Caruso’s campaign manager, and two were members of Noakes’s family. Those connections vanished from Kenny’s profile after reporters asked about them. 

The Times Union found the same Venmo link and reports that Noakes now sits on the Saratoga County Conservative Committee.

A candidate isolated from his own party

As noted in a previous post, Politico’s October 16 report laid out a long list of concerns about Caruso, from driving under the influence to allegations of domestic incidents to tens of thousands of dollars in debts and judgments. The Times Union summarized the article as documenting at least 15 lawsuits, arrests and unpaid judgments.

Days later, Caruso’s campaign released a recording a staffer had made in March of a phone call with Joseph Suhrada, then chairman of the Saratoga County Republican Party. On the recording, Suhrada uses racist and homophobic slurs while discussing a March Madness fundraiser. Suhrada claimed he was quoting a line from the 1994 film Cobb, but resigned as chairman on October 22.

Caruso hasn’t escaped criticism either. He sat on the recording for roughly seven months, and Suhrada says Caruso kept asking the county party for money and support during that time. The audio surfaced only after the Politico story ran.

State law prohibits public funds from being used in support of other candidates.

Sources

• A GOP Assembly hopeful touts his business record. Court records tell a different story. (Politico, Oct. 16, 2026)
• Republican Assembly Candidate Aide Built Alleged ‘Spoiler’ Candidate’s Website (New York Focus, Oct. 22, 2026)
• Working Families Party calls candidate Kenny ‘sock puppet’ of the GOP (Times Union, Oct. 24, 2026)