Federal election regulators are pressing Truth and Courage PAC, the super PAC backing Sen. Ted Cruz, to explain hundreds of thousands of dollars in mismatched campaign filings tied to payments from a San Antonio-based iHeart Media unit. On April 7, the Federal Election Commission flagged discrepancies in the PAC’s math. By the next day, the group had scrambled to amend multiple quarterly reports, revising aggregate totals that were off by as much as more than $400,000, with several other errors landing in the roughly $100,000 range.
FEC flagged apparent math errors
In a Request for Additional Information dated April 7, 2026, the Federal Election Commission told Cabell Hobbs, treasurer of Truth and Courage, to “amend the Year-End report” after a preliminary review suggested that the committee’s Schedule A “discloses aggregate year-to-date totals for contributions received which appear to be incorrect,” according to Federal Election Commission documents. The agency’s attached spreadsheet breaks out four payments from IHEART MEDIA MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC and shows year-to-date totals that do not line up with what the PAC reported. The FEC set a May 12 response deadline and warned that if the PAC fails to adequately respond, the inquiry could move into an audit or enforcement action.
PAC amends filings the next day
Truth and Courage filed an amendment with the FEC on April 8, saying it had updated four quarterly campaign finance statements to fix the aggregate amounts reported for those iHeart-related payments, according to the committee’s filing. Local coverage notes that the PAC’s revised paperwork appears to clean up what had looked like discrepancies as large as $400,000, along with several adjustments in the $100,000 range, as detailed by the San Antonio Current and the PAC’s own submission to the agency.
Where the money came from
The questions all trace back to payments from iHeart Media Management Services Inc., the company that distributes Cruz’s podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz” and channels advertising revenue from the show into Truth and Courage. Reporting over the last two years has followed hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing from the podcast into the PAC, a money trail that drew watchdog complaints even as the FEC, in February 2025, voted 5-1 to dismiss a related case, according to The Washington Post and the Texas Tribune.
Legal stakes and next steps
Campaign-finance lawyers say the size of the apparent math problems is hard to ignore and could factor into whether the FEC kicks the matter over to its enforcement staff. “The amount of these discrepancies are bigger than you usually see,” Brett Kappel, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign finance attorney, told the San Antonio Current. The FEC’s request gives Truth and Courage until May 12 to respond if the committee wants its explanations on the record before the agency decides whether to open an audit or enforcement action, per the Federal Election Commission.
For now, the back-and-forth keeps the podcast-to-PAC pipeline in the spotlight as regulators, watchdog groups and reporters continue to follow the money. Truth and Courage has told the FEC it amended its reports to correct the totals, and earlier reporting shows that iHeart and the committee have described the transfers as tied to podcast advertising revenue rather than direct campaign contributions.
