Texas Railroad Commission hopeful faces allegations of donor fraud
Katherine Culbert began fundraising for the race on the ActBlue platform, which is reserved exclusively for Democrats and liberal independents, before filing to run as a Republican.
Catherine Culbert is a self-described oil & gas expert, who announced on social media that she would be running for Texas Railroad Commissioner. In a recent post on X, Culbert told her supporters that she needs help raising money for the filing fees, so she included a link to donate. The link, however, leads to the left-leaning fundraising platform ActBlue.
It is not uncommon for political candidates to raise money from their supporters to help with the initial costs of the campaign. What’s different about this case, however, is the fact that Culbert raised money on ActBlue then went on to file her candidacy as a Republican.
According to ActBlue, they “aim to provide a platform for Democratic candidates, progressive organizations, and nonprofits to build small-dollar fundraising programs.” They also explicitly ban Republicans from using their platform. According to their Criteria for using ActBlue, “if a candidate is a registered Republican and/or candidate running or filed as a Republican,” using ActBlue is impermissible.
Now that Culbert is on the ballot as a Republican, she is forbidden from using ActBlue as a fundraising platform for her candidacy. Culbert has not stated whether or not she will return ActBlue donations, however ActBlue does allow donors to request refunds on their website.
If Culbert fails to return the donations, this may just be the beginning of a slew of legal problems she may face going forward. If her donors believed they were supporting a Democrat and gave her money on that basis, there is a risk that she engaged in misleading or deceptive fundraising, which is illegal.
The Culbert campaign did not respond to a request for comment via X.