Staff Reports
An undercover video published this week shows a man identified as Sky McAdams, an organizing manager for Texas Majority PAC, saying the group pays people small stipends to attend one‑hour Zoom classes that push Democratic turnout. The clip names the vendor, Relentless, and a platform called Rally. If true, this is not a clever new voter outreach tactic — it smells like the kind of scheme that courts and prosecutors exist to stop.
What the undercover video actually shows
In the footage, McAdams says, plain and blunt, that the PAC is “paying people $25 to attend a one‑hour Zoom class” and calls the program a “paid relational program.” He even admits it’s “shady as f**k” and calls the arrangement “a roundabout way of paying people for their votes.” That is the news hook: a campaign operative describing a stipend model that is meant to drive votes, not just teach civic basics. The video is undercover, so reporters should verify the full tape and the speaker’s identity. But the words are on tape, and they deserve serious attention.
Money trail and the Rally/Relentless connection
Campaign filings back up part of the claim. Texas Majority PAC’s reports show sizable payments to a vendor listed as Rally by Relentless for a “relational organizing program.” The vendor’s public materials describe paying “Voting Ambassadors” small stipends to recruit and remind friends and family to vote, using campaign software to track outreach. That lines up with what McAdams describes. So this is not just hearsay — the PAC spent real money on a program that pays activists to push turnout.
Why this looks like vote buying under the law
Federal law criminalizes paying someone “to vote for or against any candidate” (18 U.S.C. § 597), and Texas law bars paid vote‑harvesting and similar schemes (Texas Election Code § 276.015). There is a legal gray area where legitimate get‑out‑the‑vote work and illegal vote buying meet, but the video pushes this one toward the wrong side of the line. Paying people a cash stipend tied to political training that explicitly aims to increase votes looks, to any sensible person, like a way to buy influence. Prosecutors and judges will get to sort the fine print — but public officials should not shrug this off.
What must happen next
Attorney General Ken Paxton and local election officials should open a prompt, transparent inquiry. Texas voters deserve to know whether paid relational programs are being used as a backdoor for buying ballots. The PAC, Relentless, and the campaign benefiting from these efforts must answer on the record: who approved the program, how were participants paid, and what legal advice cleared this model? The media should obtain the full unedited tape and the contractual paperwork that shows the money flow. If Democrats think paying people to “attend civic training” is clever cover for purchasing votes, they’re mistaking cleverness for criminal exposure — and voters should not be fooled.
