October 28, 2020
‘Ballot Chaser’ Raquel Rodriguez Boasts Judges, Legislators ‘In My Pocket’ … ‘I’m Getting the Biden Vote Out, But I Mean, I’m Not Going To Do It For Free’… Some Texas Republicans Secretly Working For Democrats!
- ‘Ballot Chaser’ Raquel Rodriguez: “I’m against Trump. OK. I’m with Biden and I’m with Hegar. That’s the truth.”
- Rodriguez: I own state Sen. Pete Flores “Pete in the pocket.”
- Rodriguez on state rep candidate Liz Campos: “You know what I told her? ‘I respect you. You’re going to owe me—OK?’”
- Texas AG Ken Paxton: “Project Veritas’s documentary audio and video recordings” casts “a shadow of doubt” on the integrity of the elections.
- James O’Keefe: “If Rodriguez is truly responsible for 7,000 votes delivered in Bexar County so far, it is a stunning example of how fragile our republic has become.”
[BEXAR COUNTY, TEXAS—Oct. 28, 2020] Project Veritas undercover journalists exposed more corrupt practices here by ballot chaser Raquel Rodriguez in the second part of their investigation released today.
“Raquel Rodriguez was recorded with hidden camera explaining how she and her confederates pressure and reward targeted voters in order to meet the vote totals campaigns and candidates have contracted them to meet,” said James O’Keefe, the founder and CEO of Project Veritas.
“Raquel Rodriguez boasts about all the other political power brokers who are in her pocket and she told our journalists she has already brought in 7,000 votes,” he said.
“If Rodriguez is truly responsible for 7,000 votes delivered in Bexar County so far, it is a stunning example of how fragile our republic has become,” O’Keefe said.
Rodriguez, a political operative who described herself as a ballot chaser, told Project Veritas undercover journalists, posing as potential clients, that one of her main jobs is helping Mauro Garza, the Republican House hopeful for Texas’ 20th District.
Garza, who owns San Antonio’s Pegasus nightclub, met with Rodriguez to discuss what she could do for him as he was launching his congressional campaign, she said.
“Mauro, right now, he said: ‘OK, Raquel, if you were running, what would you do?’ So, he sat me down and I said: ‘I would do this, this, this, this, and this.’ He said: ‘How much money do you think you would need?’ And I budgeted everything, right? OK, so you do it,’” she said.
“He was paying me $5,000 a month, but now he’s paying me $8,000 a month, why? Because I took on his extra jobs,” she said.
Garza campaign responds to Project Veritas probe, blasts Rodriguez
After Tuesday’s release of the first part of the Project Veritas investigation into voter fraud in Texas, which exposed the corrupt practices of ballot chaser Raquel Rodriguez, GOP House hopeful Mauro Garza condemned those practices and said that Rodriguez was no longer working for his campaign.
“A former Mauro Garza campaign volunteer was recorded alleging voter fraud in our local elections. I welcome any investigation and accountability to expose these outlandish allegations.
I do not endorse or support any wrongdoing or voter fraud. If any member of my campaign team, paid or volunteer, engages in or gives the perception of any negligent behavior or threatens the integrity of voter registration or engages in voter fraud, they will be immediately fired and turned over to the County elections office and law enforcement. The volunteer in the investigative video no longer serves on my campaign. I hope that this story encourages the news media and legal authorities to investigate all evidence of voter fraud and suppression as it has been a rampant problem for decades in South Texas. I have been a long-time advocate for voter integrity and will continue my fight to make our voices as citizens heard, fairly and honestly.
All I can ask for is patience from our supporters and a thorough investigation to secure the integrity of our elections.”
Some Texas Republicans secretly working for Democrats
Rodriguez told a Project Veritas journalist she would not work for President Donald J. Trump.
Rodriguez did not say directly that she was paid by former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign or the campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Mary Jennings “MJ” Hegar, but she said she was working for both candidates and she does not work for free.
“Yeah, I’m getting the Biden vote out, but I mean I’m not going to do it for free–in other words if they don’t pay me, I’m like excuse me?” she said.
“I’m against Trump. OK. I’m with Biden and I’m with Hegar. That’s the truth,” she said. “I’ve got three Democrats; three Republicans and the rest are Democrats.” Hegar is running against Republican Sen. John Cornyn III.
Rodriguez said it is not about party loyalty, it is about the money, when a Project Veritas journalist asked about what it would take to hire her—and among her clients are Texas Republicans secretly helping the Democrats win, she said.
“My people are undercover because some of them are Republicans,” she said. “Some of them are Democrats. Some of them are just wanting to get the right people in office, so some of the Republicans are precinct chairs that cannot be known because they could get kicked out, but they want to help Biden–and so that’s how they’re helping me.”
Rodriguez said she was also hired to help candidates running for judge.
“So, those three judges that you’re talking about, and that’s her name? Renee Yanta, Nicole Garza, right? They’re paying me $3,500. Me, $3,500 to make sure that their name is on the ballot,” she said. Yanta is a Republican and Garza is a Democrat.
Rodriguez even said she looks forward to judges, like Yanta, being in her debt.
“Renee Yanta, she’s running for [judge], so the thing is, I’m going to have people like that with me, like in my pocket, you know what I’m saying?” she said.
Yanta denies she hired Rodriguez, Ramon to harvest ballots for her
Yanta told Project Veritas that she hired Raquel Rodriguez to help with her campaign, such as running an information table with workers wearing her campaign tee-shirts and holding signs.
She said she hired Rodriguez on the recommendation of Joanne Ramon, who she also hired for her campaign—but, then, fired Ramon, when she learned that Ramon was also working for her opponent.
The candidate for judge said she was stunned that Rodriguez would speak about her being in her debt as a siting judge. “I would never be in her debt and I would never-ever be in her pocket. I have run five campaigns. I have always run them ethically. I have always been a rule-of-law judge. It is extremely disturbing to me that she would say such a thing.”
Yanta said, “I did not hire either Joanne Ramon or Raquel Rodriguez or anyone else to chase ballots or for ballot harvesting.”
Rodriguez describes her ballot harvesting operation
O’Keefe said, “Rodriguez is more than just a political consultant. She directs a team of more than a dozen operatives, who act as hired guns for Republicans and Democrats looking to pay for votes.”
In one conversation with a Project Veritas journalist, Rodriguez said how much her services cost.
Raquel Rodriguez: “Let’s say $6 per vote, right? And I’m going to bring in 5,000 votes.”
Journalist: “5,000?”
Rodriguez: “5,000 votes, that’s county-wide.”
O’Keefe said Project Veritas journalists exposed election and voter fraud going on right now in real-time.
“We’ve just seen in our undercover reporting that a small handful of people are able to manipulate thousands of votes for one of the most important elections of our time,” he said.
“If we don’t stop this abhorrent illegal activity now, buying votes will become the new normal and the voter’s right to choose will be a relic of the past,” he said.
Rodriguez helps Liz Campos
Another candidate Rodriguez said she agreed to help is Elizabeth Campos, the Democratic hopeful for the 119th District seat in the Texas House of Representatives.
“I told her: ‘Are you tired of losing?’ Because, she lost twice, three strikes you’re out. I said: ‘You’ve never had me on your team.’ She said: ‘Let’s try it.’”
Rodriguez said she was committed to Campos—as long as Campos understood she owed her.
“And I brought her, listen to this, I brought her through the general, to the primary, and she was in a runoff and I got her out of the runoff. Now she couldn’t afford me. The average person would have said: ‘You know what, f*ck you, I’m not gonna help you run against your opponent.’ You know what I told her? ‘I respect you. You’re going to owe me—OK? Just remember what I am doing for you,’” she said.
Rodriguez said Campos was smart to take the deal.
Early voting has become a wildcard, she said.
“She’s very smart. She may have done it on purpose, but she knew she was going to win, but right now they’re scared because of all the people that could have voted,” she said.
Another challenge, Rodriguez said, is working on the cheap, but other members of the team are not in on her deal with Campos.
“They don’t know how that’s going to go,” Rodriguez said. “But I told her like: ‘You know what? I’m pushing you as much as I can, but I can’t make everybody else push you because everybody else is getting paid.’”
Rodriguez said to a Project Veritas journalist that she would not work to re-elect President Donald J. Trump, but besides Garza, there are other Republicans she will help—such as state Sen. Peter P. Flores, who represents the 19th District.
Raquel Rodriguez: “The senator is Pete Flores.”
Journalist: “Pete Flores.”
Rodriguez: “He’s a Republican, he’s going to win.”
Journalist: “OK, has he won already?”
Rodriguez: “Yeah, he’s already won.”
Journalist: “So, you’ve got Pete in your –“
Rodriguez: “He called me and said: ‘Raquel, what do you need?’ I told him I needed some face masks that he’s giving out, he gave me like, 22 dozen.”
Journalist: “You got Pete in the pocket.”
Rodriguez: “Pete in the pocket.”
Texas Attorney General Paxton launches investigation into ballot abuses
Texas Attorney General W. Kenneth Paxton Jr. announced Monday that his Election Fraud Unit is probing the organized election fraud scheme exposed by Project Veritas.
“What’s shown in the video is shocking and should alarm all Texans who care about election integrity,” Paxton said. “We are aggressively investigating the serious allegations and potential crimes that Project Veritas’s documentary audio and video recordings shed light on today.”
Paxton said his office was fiercely committed to ensuring that the voting process is secure and fair in all Texas elections after the Project Veritas investigation casts a shadow of doubt on the integrity of the elections.
“Election integrity has been a top priority of mine since I first took office in 2015. Anyone who attempts to defraud the people of Texas, deprive them of their vote, or undermine the integrity of elections will be brought to justice and penalized to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
O’Keefe said, “We hope the legal authorities in the state of Texas take note of this investigation–voter fraud and election fraud are real, and this country needs to wake up and do something about it.”
Texas Public Policy Foundation praises Texas AG’s probe into ballot harvesting abuses
“TPPF and its Election Protection Project commend Veritas for their bravery in disclosing how laws are flouted, abused and violated with impunity during the election cycle to game the Texas elections,” said Francisco “Quico” Canseco, the director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Election Protection Project.
“It’s why we have endeavored to explore and highlight areas in election law that are ripe for abuse and suggest reforms that protect the integrity of every ballot,” he said.
“At the top of the list is mail-in ballots, which, by breaking the chain of custody from voter to ballot box, creates the very opportunity for fraud and coercion exposed in this case,” Canseco said. “We applaud the Attorney General Ken Paxton and his office for taking action and protecting the Citizens of Texas and their voice at the ballot box.”