It’s unclear where the issue will go, but in revelatory new comments posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), Democratic strategist/consultant Sawyer Hackett exposed significant potential legal problems ensnaring Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as the southern state’s infamous GOP Senator seeks another four years over Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred (Texas).
“More trouble for Ted Cruz,” Hackett wrote online. “His leadership PAC paid a polling firm $23,000 for “survey research” in January—the same firm his campaign uses for polling. If the poll is for him, it would be an in-kind contribution way beyond legal limits.”
A leadership PAC is a legal variety of fundraising organization that is separate from its leader’s central campaign operations, and there are generally strict rules for how that kind of outside organization can intersect with the leader’s own political campaign. Among other things, leadership PAC funds are often used to financially support other candidates for office, not whatever official/political figure leads the organization in question.
Polling from Texas suggests that the eventual face-off between Cruz and Allred will be close, although the state is known for having leaned Republican in recent statewide elections. In the meantime, Cruz is further establishing himself as a Trump ally, including by stumping for the ex-president amid Donald’s criminal trial proceedings in New York City on charges of falsifying business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 presidential election for a woman named Stormy Daniels.
Cruz also recently tried — unsuccessfully — to set up an option for special security for lawmakers and family members in commercial airports, something that if in place might have helped Cruz with averting the infamous confrontations around his previous travels to Mexico while Texans — his constituents — stared down a massive winter storm. And Cruz also tried unsuccessfully to add language to a new bill funding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would have put additional red tape around proposed refunds for airline passengers affected by particularly extensive delays. Amid the development of that legislation, Democrats reversed what Cruz pushed.
