The Texas Democratic Party accepted an anonymous contribution of $5,668.85 in June from a donor who listed their occupation as “Justice Warrior” and employer as “Mother Earth,” along with a fake address, according to a campaign finance report on file with the Texas Ethics Commission.
This anonymous contribution was one of the largest contributions received by the Texas Democratic Party during the most recent state campaign finance reporting period.
Political committees, such as the Texas Democratic Party, are required by law to report the true names, addresses, and occupations of certain donors on campaign finance disclosure filings. Gilberto Hinojosa, the State Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, is also the Party’s campaign treasurer and is responsible for ensuring the reporting of accurate information on the Party’s campaign finance reports.
The Texas Ethics Commission, in Ethics Advisory Opinion 207, recognized that political committees that receive anonymous political contributions must disgorge those contributions by transferring them to a “recognized tax-exempt charitable organization.” However, the campaign finance report filed by the Texas Democratic Party does not indicate that the Party contributed the anonymously donated funds to charity as required.
The acceptance of this large anonymous donation by the Texas Democratic Party comes as questions surround the activities of ActBlue, a prominent Democratic fundraising platform. The Texas Democratic Party utilizes ActBlue’s fundraising platform and reported a $5,000 contribution from ActBlue in May.
Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office issued a press release regarding an ongoing investigation by the office into ActBlue. The release stated that the Attorney General’s office began an investigation of ActBlue in December 2023 “to determine whether ActBlue’s operations are compliant with all applicable laws” and noted that “ActBlue has been the subject of numerous allegations of illicit activity, including that its platform may enable fraud.”
Paxton said that ActBlue had been cooperating with his office’s investigation.
“ActBlue has cooperated with our ongoing investigation. They have changed their requirements to now include ‘CVV’ codes for donations on their platform. This is a critical change that can help prevent fraudulent donations,” said Attorney General Paxton. “But it is most important that we enforce the law and protect the integrity of our elections. Certain features of campaign finance law may incentivize bad actors to use platforms like ActBlue to covertly move money to political campaigns to evade legal requirements. While campaign finance is protected by the First Amendment, suspicious activity on fundraising platforms must be fully investigated to determine if any laws have been broken.”
