Roland Gutierrez’ Secret: Payday Loan Industry Profiteering from Coronavirus While Secretly Funding Gutierrez’ Campaign for Senate
(Press Release) “Roland Gutierrez’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad bill” is what the San Antonio Express News called State Representative Roland Gutierrez’ House Bill 3292, a bill that made it easier for payday lenders to take advantage of vulnerable consumers and active duty members of the military. The Express News coverage added, “This bill is bad for Texas consumers. It’s bad for San Antonio. It should not be supported by any member of the Bexar County delegation.”
A year later, during a global pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reports the predatory payday lending industry is actively circumventing state laws to profit off of consumers struggling as a result of the biggest job loss in U.S. history.
“As the number of coronavirus cases in Texas skyrockets, Texans who need financial help — because they are working fewer hours, have lost their jobs or have gotten sick — are being targeted by predatory payday lenders. Payday loan companies stand to make millions by trapping people in a cycle of debt during a global pandemic. Profiteering from coronavirus is disgusting corporate behavior, worse than price gouging during a natural disaster,” said Xochil Peña Rodriguez, Gutierrez’ Democratic opponent in the July 14th Senate District 19 run-off election.
Peña Rodriguez added, “Representative Gutierrez should be speaking up to stop these financial predators from preying on people during a pandemic, but he’s been suspiciously silent. Maybe it’s because Roland’s campaign is colluding with out-of-state payday lenders and Republican donors who want to influence a Democratic Primary election in Texas. They’ve bought his silence through years of political donations and by funding his mysterious PAC. Roland has been their champion in the House and now they want their puppet in the Senate.”
In their endorsement of Democrat Xochil Peña Rodriguez for State Senate District 19, the San Antonio Express News noted that Roland Gutierrez’ unwavering support of predatory lenders was “impossible to ignore” and that “strangely, Gutierrez has yet to explain who asked him to carry this bill (HB 3292).”
The connection between Roland Gutierrez’ campaign and predatory payday lenders, as well as Republican donors, is glaringly obvious in Vote Texas PAC state filings.
- Vote Texas state filing makes public that it has just one purpose for its spending – to OPPOSE Roland Gutierrez’ opponent, “Ms. Xochil Rodriguez.”
- 2/13/20 – Payday lender investor/advocate and Trump Victory PAC donor, Carey Adams (AKA: C. Dan Adams) donates $10,000 to Vote Texas PAC.
- 2/19/20 – Jeff Crook, a Republican donor and resident of Utah donates $10,000 to Vote Texas PAC. Crook previously donated directly to Roland Gutierrez’ campaign.
- Until recently, Vote Texas PAC shared a Campaign Treasurer with Roland Gutierrez’s personal campaign committee
Gutierrez’ connection and collusion with payday lenders and Republican donors via the Vote Texas PAC is made even clearer in state filings from his last failed run for State Senate in 2018.
- Vote Texas PAC reports its purpose as SUPPORTING Roland Gutierrez.
- 8/17/18 – Vote Texas receives $10,000 from Carey Adams (AKA: C. Dan Adams)
- 7/25/18 – Vote Texas receives $10,000 from Jeff Crook, CEO of American Venture Capital Bank who that year reported his residence as being in the Virgin Islands.
- 8/1/18, 9/7/18 – Vote Texas makes contributions totaling $12,500 directly to Roland Gutierrez’ campaign for State Senate.
- In 2018, Vote Texas also reported receiving $15,000 in contributions from another predatory payday lender and Trump donor, Trevor Ahlberg, CEO of Cottonwood Financial.
It is unclear if Vote Texas PAC exists to do anything other than be a front for payday lenders and a slush fund to support Roland Gutierrez. One thing is clear though — according to campaignmoney.com, in 2016 alone, Carey Adams and Trevor Ahlberg — funders of the Vote Texas PAC who has relentlessly attacked Xochil Peña Rodriguez’ campaign — donated nearly $250,000 to elect Donald Trump and other Republicans. The Democratic Primary Run-Off Election for State Senate District 19 is on July 14. Early Voting is June 29 – July 10.
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