SAN ANTONIO, TX — President Donald Trump has been vindicated yet again. In a sweeping crackdown on election fraud, authorities in Texas have busted a massive illegal vote-harvesting ring, resulting in the indictment of top Democratic Party officials and political candidates.
Led by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the statewide investigation has exposed exactly what conservatives have been warning about for years: organized, compensated ballot harvesting designed to manipulate elections.
THE DEMOCRAT KINGPINS
The scheme allegedly centered around Juan Manuel Medina, the former Bexar County Democratic Party Chair and one-time San Antonio mayoral candidate. Medina is now facing two felony counts of vote harvesting.
Prosecutors say Medina orchestrated the illegal operation on behalf of Democrat Cecilia Castellano, who ran for the Texas House District 80 seat in 2024. Even with the alleged cheating, Castellano still lost to Republican Don McLaughlin.
According to the indictment documents, Medina provided “compensation or other benefit” to individuals in exchange for their “vote-harvesting services” to boost Castellano’s campaign. Both Castellano and Medina have been formally indicted.
While Castellano’s lawyer claims the charges are “chilling,” the evidence was enough for a grand jury to act.
A WIDE-RANGING CONSPIRACY
The corruption didn’t stop at the top. The indictments named several other prominent local Democrats and officials in the Frio County area, including:
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Former Pearsall Mayor Petra Davina Trevino
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Former Dilley Mayor Mary Ann Obregon
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Former Dilley Council member Inelda Rodriguez
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Frio County Precinct 3 Commissioner Raul Carrizales III
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Pearsall ISD Board Secretary Maricela Garcia Benavides
These charges follow a previous wave of arrests in May, where six other individuals were taken down in the same Frio County probe. That initial investigation led directly to raids on Medina’s home and the seizure of Castellano’s cell phone.
NONCITIZENS AND ARIZONA CHEATS
Texas isn’t stopping there. Paxton recently announced a new wave of investigations into 33 “potential noncitizens” flagged by the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database for allegedly voting illegally in the 2024 election.
This organized fraud isn’t isolated to Texas, either. The tactics mirror those used during the 2020 election in Arizona. In Yuma County, Gloria Lopez Torres—a sitting San Luis Council member—and Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-Mayorquin were indicted for conspiracy and ballot abuse after collecting early ballots and stuffing them into drop boxes.
While the mainstream media continues to deny the existence of organized voter fraud, the arrests are piling up. The message from law enforcement is clear: The days of stealing American elections without consequences are over.
