Sanford Nowlin
5/1/24
(San Antonio Current) Trey Trainor, an attorney serving on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) — the panel scheduled to hear the complaint — recently retweeted a photo his wife Lucy Trainor shared of a yard sign outside their Austin-area home promoting the Texas Republican’s campaign for a third term in the U.S. Senate.
The questions about Trainor’s and Cooksey’s relationships with Cruz come as the FEC prepares to weigh in on the legality of a high-profile deal Cruz struck with San Antonio-based media conglomerate iHeartMedia to distribute his podcast, The Verdict With Ted Cruz.
iHeartMedia has paid some $630,000 derived from the program’s ad revenue into a super PAC whose primary goal is to ensure Cruz’s reelection. The groups that initiated the FEC complaint — End Citizens United and the Campaign Legal Center — argue the deal is a likely violation of laws barring corporations from spending unlimited cash in direct support of candidates.