The Blast - Mon, Jun. 22, 2026

134 days until the midterms

Texas Majority PAC continues to wade into Democratic intraparty contests, providing Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder with $375 in campaign phone calls as he seeks reelection by Texas Democratic Convention delegates.

The meager in-kind contribution made earlier this month is the group’s latest involvement in a contested party campaign. TMP organized volunteers to phone bank on behalf of Scudder’s campaign as he hopes to fend off multiple challengers, including former party Executive Director Monique Alcala and former staffer Marco Orrantia, who served various roles at the party for nearly nine years. Notably, Orrantia served as the TDP union president amid alleged union busting by Scudder and the party’s relocation from Austin to Dallas.

Under Scudder, TMP has effectively been elevated to the state party’s campaign arm, running point on this year’s coordinated campaign. Despite stating it is primary neutral, TMP made an exception for failed land commissioner candidate Jose Loya and denied supporting steelworker union leader Marcos Vélez over Austin state Rep. Vikki Goodwin for lieutenant governor. Ultimately, more than half a million of TMP’s funds appeared to make its way to Vélez’s primary, passing through union groups during the primary and primary runoff.

The $375 contribution, disclosed in Scudder’s finance report filed on Wednesday, is pennies compared to TMP’s previous spending and a drop in the bucket considering the group can seemingly pick up millions on a whim from national donors. However, that hasn’t stopped the contribution from rubbing Scudder’s and TMP’s critics the wrong way.

“At this point, I think they’re just being smug assholes,” Alcala told The Blast.

TMP Executive Director Katherine Fischer did not respond to The Blast’s request for comment.

Scudder was first elected to complete longtime Chair Gilberto Hinojosa’s term in March 2025 by the State Democratic Executive Committee, leveraging his relations with executive committee members to win a majority in the first round of a six-way race. To win a full term this week, Scudder must earn support from delegates beyond the insular governing board. That’s where the dialer and whipping votes come into play.

The voting starts Friday evening, with counting set to go into Monday morning. It’s been a bitter race, featuring a war of letters as critics accused Scudder of operational failures and fostering a hostile work environment. Last month, former staffer and party treasurer candidate Xaq Webb elevated concerns about how the party reported its finances to the federal and state ethics commissions.

In a statement shared exclusively with The Blast after Bill Aleshire first took those concerns public, TDP Executive Director Terri Burke said the party would not be “distracted” by individuals putting themselves ahead of the party’s attempt to build a grassroots operation across the state.

An emerging flashpoint in the party officer elections is that the convention leadership earlier this month cut candidate speeches from the Friday night agenda, citing a “packed schedule of speakers.” In a press release, the Alcala campaign accused Scudder of silencing debate.

“You can’t lead the Party that is saving democracy and crush debate and evade accountability at the same time,” she said in the statement.

However, the races for TDP’s executive offices have never been this full, at least not in recent memory. With 21 candidates running for the various offices it could take upward of 90 minutes for everyone to say their piece.

Friday’s lineup includes U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey as the keynote, with statewide candidates from U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico to Court of Appeals nominee Holly Taylor slated to speak. Other electeds from Congress to the Texas Senate, Texas House, county offices and more will also address the convention that night.

Notably, outgoing U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas told The Dallas Morning News last week that she does not plan to attend the convention after losing the Senate nomination to Talarico.

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Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows will serve as finance chair of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee for the 2026 cycle.

That’s a major vote of confidence in the first-time speaker and his ability to fundraise in a key cycle for the GOP, who face political headwinds in November.

In a statement, the Lubbock Republican said the organization faces “spending disadvantages” but invested in field operations and absentee and early voting to achieve success in battleground districts.

Democrats need to flip 14 Texas House seats to take the chamber, a tall order for the minority party, which isn’t seriously thinking about the possibility yet. However, the speaker’s race and the 90th legislative session could get interesting if Democrats cut Republicans’ margin to just half a dozen.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is targeting 36 states. In Texas, the group has targeted 12 House seats it hopes to flip.

“This election cycle will be one of the most competitive and consequential in recent history,” Burrows posted on social media. “Democrats are preparing to spend heavily in state races nationwide, but Republicans are ready to compete, defend our majorities, and win.”

It’s confirmed: Lead Left PAC, the suspicious pop-up PAC that boosted TX-35 Democratic candidate Maureen Galindo, received all of its funding from a GOP-linked group, Conservative Americans PAC.

According to federal filings published on Saturday, Conservative Americans PAC gave Lead Left $3.2 million in May, presenting itself as a Democratic group. However, the mysterious PAC spent all its time supporting the perceived weaker candidates in Democratic primaries across the country, and signs showed more right-leaning links than Democratic links.

In Texas, Lead Left gave $750,000 to Galindo, who made national headlines for touting antisemitic conspiracy theories while opposing the pro-Israel lobby. Her comments united the Blue Dog and progressive wings of the Democratic Party behind moderate Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia.

“Republicans are leveling the playing field after over a decade of Democrats meddling in our primaries,” Conservative Americans PAC spokesperson Samantha Bullock said in a statement to reporters, “and with the Democrat Party in the midst of a civil war, Republicans would be stupid not to take advantage while pushing their candidates farther left.”

Conservative Americans PAC also gave $5 million to Conservative Texans PAC, another pop-up PAC that spent those funds attacking U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, and supporting U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the first round of the GOP primary.

Conservative Americans PAC raised all of its funding this cycle from American Prosperity Alliance, another GOP-linked group.

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The National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday released its first-ever candidate video under the “MAGA Majority” banner, supporting Eric Flores against U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen.

The 30-second digital ad, released in English and Spanish, attacks Gonzalez on the border and for supporting former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

MAGA Majority, a rebrand of the NRCC’s “Young Guns” program, this month also unveiled its first “battlestation,” supporting Flores out of its new Harlingen office.

Meanwhile, Democrats are expanding their ad spending lead ahead of November. Opportunity Forward Alliance placed $812,000 in broadcast ads in the Corpus Christi market for July and August, the Democratic-aligned group’s first spend of the race. The bulk of that $560,000 will be in English, while the remaining $252,000 will be in Spanish.

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(June 22) State Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney
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