Texas Democrat organizer claims PAC pays voters $25 as 'roundabout way of paying people for their votes'

Undercover video captured in Townhall investigation

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, September 17, 2026

A Texas Democrat political action committee has fired an organizer caught on undercover video describing $25 payments to people willing to attend a one-hour anti-Republican Zoom class as "a roundabout way of paying people for their votes."

Texas Majority PAC fired Sky McAdams, its organizing manager, after an undercover video from Townhall Media showed him describing the payment scheme in detail, the outlet reported Thursday.

A PAC spokesperson told Blaze News that "participants in the program are being paid for grassroots organizing work" and that "the way it was described by one rogue employee is factually incorrect, not how we operate, and they were immediately fired."

In an undercover video obtained by Townhall Media, McAdams outlined the legally questionable effort. Texas Majority PAC supports Democratic candidates, including U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico. 

McAdams claimed the payments are part of a “paid relational program” run by Relentless, a firm that designs and runs scaled relational organizing programs for political campaigns.

“We are paying people $25 to attend a one-hour Zoom class to learn why voting is important and why the Republicans are causing all of these bad things,” McAdams is heard saying in the video. “So it’s like a roundabout way of paying people for their votes, essentially.”

While he noted that direct payments for votes are illegal, McAdams added that the program is legally ambiguous. “You can’t be like, ‘Here’s $25, go vote for me,’” he said. “You can say, ‘Attend a one-hour class and you can receive $25.’ And then the class just talks about the importance of … It’s a little gray.”

Acknowledging the partisan nature of the effort, McAdams said, “If I was a Republican, I would be pissed.”

According to a July campaign finance filing, Texas Majority PAC reported paying Relentless $500,000 for a “relational organizing program,” representing roughly 20% of its expenditures at the time. Later figures cited by Townhall show the PAC paid Relentless more than $718,000 this year for the work, along with additional transfers involving Relentless’ PAC. 

At $25 per participant, the $500,000 figure could theoretically cover payments related to 20,000 individuals.

Texas Majority PAC did not respond to CP's request for comment Thursday.

On its website, Relentless describes its paid relational programs as recruiting low-propensity voters and compensating them for their time as they reach, persuade and mobilize friends and family. The company says it ran similar efforts in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania in 2024 that produced nearly 50,000 Democratic votes.

The company posted a statement Wednesday pointing out that McAdams “is not an employee or volunteer with Relentless, and has never been.”

Describing its mission as a “public benefit company,” the Relentless statement said the company “provides a service running organizing programs, and we abide by all applicable laws.”

“Relentless does not support the description or characterization in the video of the program we are running for our client in Texas,” the statement added.

On its website, Relentless acknowledges paying compensation for organizers’ time, but stresses that such payment is not tied to votes, and that paying people for organizing work is legal. 

“Is the compensation tied to votes? No. That’s illegal,” the company states. It notes that traditional paid organizing involves contacting assigned lists of voters, while its relational model has participants build lists from people they already know.

Founded in December 2022 and formerly known as Texas Together, Texas Majority PAC states its goal is to “permanently flip Texas blue.” It has provided significant funding to partner organizations across the state for staffing, canvassing and voter outreach. The PAC’s co-founders and “most” of its staff are alumni from Beto O’Rourke’s failed 2018 Senate and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, according to its website.