Presidential candidates have been doing it for years.

They raise money and explore their viability long before they announce they’re running. And that practice is increasingly trickling down to the House and Senate level.

The latest example comes from the Montana Senate race, where Republican candidate Russell Fagg won’t have to disclose any of the money he’s raised until January — seven months after he formed his exploratory committee for Senate this summer.

That’s because he didn’t officially become a candidate until October, in the fourth quarter of 2017.

But Democrats have argued that Fagg, who’s running in a crowded GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, was acting like a candidate well before October. A liberal group has filed a complaint against him with the Federal Election Commission. Fagg recently hired a lawyer to respond to the allegations from the American Democracy Legal Fund.