Austin outlet pushes opinion from 'lifelong Republican' who voted straight Dem—author's husband is advisor to Texas Dems

Kurt Bardella, Kim's husband, states on his X profile that he is an advisor to the Texas Democratic Party and formerly on the House Oversight Committee.

The "Republican" woman in Texas declared in the opinion piece that she "voted straight-ticket Democrat for the first time in my life" and that it wasn't just the "top of the ticket" but she "voted for every Democrat all the way down the ballot."

She explained that she worked for Texas Republicans at the nation's capital and that her first job interview was with incumbent Texas Senator John Cornyn and declared her "Texas Republican credentials " to be "strong."

Bardella claimed that is the only reason that she "chose to vote straight-ticket Democrat" because the party has been "hijacked by MAGA extremists to the point where it no longer resembles the GOP."

Despite her husband being an advisor to the Democrat Party of Texas, the outlet did not disclose this potential conflict of interest on their page in anything such as an editor's note.

OpenSecrets notes that in the 2022 election, the Democratic Party paid Kurt Bardella hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The outlet was slammed for not disclosing the possible conflict of interest in the article, with The Post Millennial's Andy Ngo saying, "It is unethical and misleading to readers to not disclose her family’s financial ties to the Texas Democrat Party. That is the meaning of conflict of interest.

The "lifelong Republican" piece at the Austin-American Statesman follows a similarly embarrassing scenario where the Dallas Morning News published a piece from one Suzanne Bellsnyder, who said that she was a "Republican" but is voting for Democrat Gina Hinojosa for governor. 

Bellsnyder was later revealed to be a paid consultant for the Hinojosa campaign. The paper published a large editor's note at the top of the article after publication, stating, "After the publication of this column, the author confirmed to The Dallas Morning News that she is a paid consultant of the Hinojosa campaign. She did not disclose this at the time of submission or during the editing process. Our expectation is that readers be aware of all conflicts and potential conflicts. Had we been aware of this conflict, we would have declined to publish this piece. We regret that we were not."

Despite the outlet saying they would not have published the article, it has not been taken down.