A watchdog group has filed a regulatory complaint accusing San Antonio congressional candidate Brandon Herrera’s campaign of funneling $2.7 million in contributions into a shell company so it can avoid reporting how it’s actually spending the cash.
In a letter filed late last month with the Federal Election Commission, the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center alleged the Republican candidate, his principal committee, his leadership PAC and an authorized joint fundraising committee together skirted rules requiring them to show how they spent cash raised from donors.
Campaign officials for Herrera, who’s running to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, were unavailable Tuesday afternoon for immediate comment on the complaint.
The FEC, as a matter of policy, doesn’t comment on complaints.
“The overall goal seems to be concealing their how they’re spending their money in a way that’s not only illegal but fundamentally undermines the transparency voters have a right to,” Campaign Legal Center Director of Federal Campaign Finance Reform Saurav Ghosh told the Current.
Indeed, federal filings show 99.4% of Herrera’s 2026 campaign expenditures have gone to Texas Strategy Group, an entity that’s not registered to legally do business anywhere in the United States and doesn’t even have a website, according to the nonprofit’s complaint. During Herrera’s failed 2024 campaign for the same seat, 92% of funds were directed to the shell company, the document also states.
Herrera, a YouTube gun influencer who’s never before held public office, landed the Republican nomination this spring after U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales ended his reelection bid. The incumbent for the South Texas district faced mounting pressure from the GOP to drop out over an affair he had with a former staffer who later died by suicide.
In the general election, Herrera — an edgy and controversial online personality known to fans as the “AK Guy” — is running against Democrat Katy Padilla Stout, a San Antonio attorney. The 23rd District includes portions of San Antonio along with a large swath of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ghosh said it’s not uncommon to see campaigns attempt to muddy waters in federal campaign filings. However, he said the Herrera campaign’s case seems especially flagrant.
“This is egregious in the sense that there’s no real effort to cover up what’s happening,” Ghosh said. “We’ve seen some other examples of this, but this one is at the far end of the spectrum in terms of how much of the total money is being routed through the shell company.”
In its FEC filing, the Campaign Legal Center argues that both of Texas Strategy Group’s reported addresses — in Hudson, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC — are linked to the treasurer for Herrera’s campaign committees, Thomas Datwyler.
The complaint argues that the arrangement with the shell company violates the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), which requires all political committees to report the actual recipients of their payments.
“It therefore appears that [Texas Strategy Group] was set up to serve as nothing more than a straw middleman between Herrera’s political operation and the vendors actually being paid to provide the reported services — an unlawful setup that grossly undermines electoral transparency,” the filing alleges.
In its complaint, the Campaign Finance Center urges federal regulators to bar the campaign from from future FECA violations and impose stiff enough civil penalties to deter future breaches of campaign finance law.
The FEC’s general counsel reviews complaints such as this one, then recommends a course of action for the commission, which is comprised of six appointed members.
However, it’s unclear just how long it may be before the FEC is poised to take any action. For months, it’s operated with just two members, leaving it without a quorum. Three of the departures occurred during President Trump’s second term, including his firing of Democratic commissioner Ellen Weintraub, who argues her ouster was illegal.
Even so, Ghosh said his group wants to flag the Herrera campaign’s potential violations so voters can make informed choices.
“It seems almost counterproductive when campaigns are asking voters to give them their confidence yet they won’t provide any transparency about how they’re spending their money,” he said.
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