Hidden Camera Shows Democratic Campaigner Admitting to ‘Paying’ for Votes

An undercover video involving a Texas Democratic political organizer is drawing scrutiny after he described a paid voter-outreach program as a “roundabout way of paying people for their votes.”

The footage, first published by Townhall, identifies the speaker as Sky McAdams, an organizing manager for Texas Majority PAC. McAdams discussed a program in which participants can receive $25 for attending an hour-long online session related to voting and politics.

“We are paying people $25 to attend a one-hour Zoom class,” McAdams said in the video. He later characterized the arrangement as a “roundabout way of paying people for their votes, essentially.”

McAdams described the effort as a “paid relational program” connected to Relentless, a political organizing company that operates a platform called Rally.

Relational organizing differs from traditional door-to-door campaigning because participants generally focus on people they already know. Relentless says its programs recruit voters and compensate participants for the time they spend contacting, persuading and mobilizing friends and relatives.

During the undercover conversation, McAdams acknowledged that paying someone directly in exchange for voting for a particular candidate would be prohibited.

“You can’t pay someone to vote for someone,” McAdams said. He explained that the participant instead receives money for attending the class before adding, “It’s a little gray.”

McAdams also appeared to recognize how the program could be perceived by political opponents.

“If I was a Republican, I would be pissed,” he said, later describing the arrangement as “shady as f***.”

Texas Majority PAC has disputed McAdams’ description of the program. The organization says participants are compensated for legitimate grassroots organizing activities rather than for voting or casting a ballot for a particular candidate. The PAC also said McAdams was fired after the video became public.

Relentless similarly states that compensation is for organizing work. On its website, the company says payments are not tied to whether anyone ultimately votes, adding that compensating someone specifically for a vote would be illegal.

Relentless says it has previously operated paid relational-organizing programs in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Its 2024 program involved participants reaching out to people within their own personal networks.

The source article also reports that campaign-finance records showed Texas Majority PAC paying Relentless $500,000 for a relational organizing program.

Texas Majority PAC has worked to increase Democratic turnout in the state and has been associated with events involving Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. However, the material released with the undercover video does not establish that Talarico personally directed the program or that his campaign directly paid voters to cast ballots.

Relentless describes Rally as technology intended to expand political conversations between participants and people they already know. The company says the platform is “built by organizers, for organizers” and designed to help political organizations conduct relational outreach at a larger scale.

The video has renewed debate over the distinction between legally compensating political organizers for outreach work and illegally providing compensation in exchange for voting. The organizations involved maintain that their payments fall into the former category, while McAdams’ remarks have fueled scrutiny of how the program operates.