Staff Reports
An undercover video published by Townhall shows a Texas Majority PAC operative admitting something that sounds a lot like pay‑for‑votes. The operative, identified as Sky McAdams, is caught on tape saying, “We are paying people $25 to attend a one‑hour Zoom class … So it’s like a roundabout way of paying people for their votes, essentially.” If that sounds shocking, it should — and it should make every voter uneasy.
What the undercover tape actually shows
The tape captures an organizing manager describing a program that pays people $25 to attend a one‑hour “voter education” Zoom. The operative calls the arrangement “a roundabout way of paying people for their votes.” That clip is the spark that lit a firestorm. Texas Majority PAC says it fired the staffer and insists the payments were for grassroots organizing work, not for votes. Relentless, the vendor named in filings, also says it pays people for outreach — not for who they vote for.
Why this matters: vote buying vs. paid organizing
There’s a real legal line here. Paying someone to cast a ballot for a specific candidate is illegal. Paying someone for neutral, bona fide organizing work — canvassing, phone banking, training — can be legal. But when a staffer admits the program is “a roundabout way” of buying votes, that crosses the bright line for trust. The public shouldn’t have to play lawyer to figure out whether a so‑called organizing program is actually a scheme to buy ballots.
Follow the money: Relentless and the $500,000 filing
Reporters point to a campaign‑finance filing showing Texas Majority PAC paid a vendor called Relentless roughly $500,000 for a “relational organizing program.” At $25 a person, that kind of money covers a lot of Zoom sessions. Relentless says it compensates people for outreach work and that payments are not tied to how anyone votes. Fine. But the public record and the tape together raise a very fair question: is this clever labeling — “paid relational organizing” — being used to hide something ugly?
Political fallout and the call for a probe
Republican leaders smelled blood. Attorney General Ken Paxton and other GOP officials called for investigations. If you run a campaign or a PAC, you should expect scrutiny when your vendor gets half a million dollars and your staffer sounds like he’s describing a vote‑buying scheme. That’s not a partisan take — that’s basic common sense and a defense of election integrity. Prosecutors and regulators should pull the filings, the contracts, and the invoices. Let the law and the facts answer whether lines were crossed.
End of the day, voters deserve to know if their ballot is being bought with a thin veil of good intentions and corporate‑sounding vendor names. If this is honest organizing, show the receipts and the records. If it’s not, hold the guilty to account. Our elections are too important to tolerate games — or to let clever euphemisms replace the plain truth.
