A Texas politician has come under scrutiny for filing as a Republican after raising money from Democrats.
Katherine Culbert, a former Democratic nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, has launched a 2026 campaign under the Republican banner, raising questions about candidate transparency and campaign fundraising practices.
It is understood that she used the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue to raise money for her campaign. The ActBlue team said it became aware late on Tuesday afternoon that Culbert had switched parties.
It’s called a closed primary and fewer than half the states do it that way. Here in Texas, the primaries are open, but voting in a primary affiliates you to that party for that one calendar year so that only those who voted in the original primary can vote in any run-off elections from the primary.
I did not know this! I thought they were all closed primaries.