Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is raising eyebrows among campaign finance experts after more money from his podcast was donated to his super PAC last month. Cruz signed a lucrative deal with iHeartMedia to distribute his podcast, “The Verdict With Ted Cruz,” in 2022 but iHeartMedia has since funneled $786,000 of that to Cruz’s Truth and Courage PAC. The most recent donation was $156,186 in May, according to new FEC filings. Super PACs can accept corporate donations but federal candidates can't “solicit, receive, direct, transfer, or spend funds” on behalf of those fundraising entities. “This is not an arrangement we’ve seen before, and it seems like Senator Cruz is trying to find a way to walk the line between not falling into an ethics violation and not falling into a campaign finance violation,” senior legal counsel for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center Shanna Ports told the San Antonio Current in March. In April, The Campaign Legal Center and another watchdog group, End Citizens United, filed a complaint to the FEC alleging that Cruz’s arrangement violated the Federal Election Campaign Act, according to the San Antonio Current. Cruz’s reps maintain that the deal is kosher because he makes no direct money from the podcast.
