San Antonio’s iHeartMedia donated total of $630,000 to Ted Cruz-linked super PAC

Although U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has repeatedly denied that he makes any money from his podcast, a new Houston Chronicle story reports that a PAC aligned with the Texas Republican is reaping big benefits.

Citing campaign finance records, the Chronicle reports San Antonio-based iHeartMedia has donated $630,000 to the Truth and Courage PAC since the media conglomerate began distributing Cruz’s three-times-a-week The Verdict with Ted Cruz podcast in 2022. Truth and Courage’s website lists its focus as “ensuring that Ted Cruz is re-elected to the United States Senate in 2024.”

The media conglomerate’s most recent donation to the PAC was a payment of $214,752.98 made on Feb. 15, as reported last week by the Current.

Although the money isn’t going directly to Cruz, Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel at the nonpartisan watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, told the Chronicle that Cruz is walking a fine line.

“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,” Ports said.

Ports added that the deal and recent donations beg “the question of whether this is an unlawful contribution.”

Word of the financial arrangement between iHeartMedia and the Cruz-aligned PAC comes as the two-term incumbent heads into a tightly contested race against Dallas Democrat and former NFL player U.S. Rep. Collin Allred.

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This article appears in Mar 20 – Apr 2, 2024.