Concern has been raised over iHeartMedia, the broadcaster of the Verdict With Ted Cruz podcast, paying $630,850 to the Truth and Courage PAC which supports the Texas Senator.
Data from the Federal Election Commission shows iHeartMedia has donated a total of $630,850 to Truth and Courage PAC since March 2023, constituting around a third of its revenue since the beginning of that year. Critics are calling on Senate and federal election authorities to investigate this as a possible ethics violation while Cruz’s team has said he has done nothing wrong.
Cruz is expected to face a tough election challenge in November from Democrat Colin Allred, a former NFL player who currently serves in the House of Representatives. In 2018, Cruz only narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke by less than three percent of the vote, and his seat is widely regarded as competitive in 2024.
In 2022, iHeartMedia acquired Verdict With Ted Cruz, a podcast the Texas Republican launched in 2020 to discuss Trump’s first impeachment. Cruz’s team has said he isn’t paid by iHeartMedia for hosting duties. As iHeartMedia employs lobbyists, it would be impermissible under Senate rules for Cruz to accept gifts except of “nominal value” from the company, especially given his position on the Senate Commerce Committee, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Newsweek contacted Senator Ted Cruz and iHeartMedia for comment at 3 a.m. ET on Tuesday by email, along with Truth and Courage PAC via messages on Facebook and Instagram. This article will be updated if a comment is received.
Rachel Nelson, who serves as iHeartMedia’s vice-president of public relations, told the newspaper that the company’s payments to Truth and Courage PAC are “associated with those advertising sales” for his podcast. “Sen. Cruz volunteers his time to host this podcast and isn’t compensated for it,” she said.
In 2022, the Campaign Legal Center, which states it fights “for every American’s right to participate in the democratic process,” filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee over the pro-Cruz PAC receiving payments from iHeartMedia. This was later dismissed with the committee concluding Cruz had abided by lobbying regulations.
However, the latest revelations about the extent of the financial relationship between iHeartMedia and Truth and Courage PAC have sparked calls for a fresh investigation. Shanna Ports, a senior legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, said the new revelations raise “the question of whether this is an unlawful contribution.”
Ports argued Cruz could have acted illegally if he solicited donations of over $5,000 to his PAC, which federal officeholders are prohibited from doing under federal law.
Kevin Dietsch/GETTY
Robert Maguire, research director at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics watchdog, also raised concerns about Cruz’s relationship with iHeartMedia.
He said: “Volunteering generally means you’re doing something expecting no personal benefit, but Cruz here is clearly benefiting from the ad revenue that is being generated by his iHeartMedia show.”
Speaking to The Houston Chronicle, a spokesperson for Cruz said the senator “appears on Verdict three times a week for free.”
“He does this to pull back the veil on the corrupt inner workings of Washington none of which ever get fairly covered. How convenient that the mainstream media and the cogs in the machine of the Biden-Pelosi Democrat Party want this to stop.”
A recent Marist poll of 1,227 Texas adults put Cruz ahead of Allred by 51 percent to 45 percent, with 53 percent of those surveyed saying they’d never heard of the Democratic challenger.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.