Many People Are Saying (11/7/25)
Texas has a grifter problem
Welcome to the grifter edition of Many People Are Saying. Our once weekly article where we talk about the more odd and unique things going on in Texas politics.
THIS WEEK:
The grift is bigger in Texas, where faith, freedom, and fundraising meet. Lately people have noticed a new trend where anyone can run for an unwinnable office, dress the part with a cowboy hat and boots, repeat the right talking points, and walk away with social media clout from boomers backing a lost cause.
This week we will identify the candidates that meet these qualifications and highlight their run for office, then we’ll let you, the reader, vote on whether you think the candidate is LEGIT or a GRIFTER.
Most of these candidates who run seem to meet the following
Running in races they have no chance of winning.
Very little to no voting history.
Cowboy cosplay.
Crappy fundraising numbers and strange side hustles.
Let’s take a look at the candidates.
Theodis Daniel
Theodis Daniel, announced his run for in the 18th Congressional District (TX-18) in Houston in August of this year. Daniel, as we are aware, is a full time candidate.
No chance at winning:
Daniel is running in TX-18 which is a D+21 district. This is one of the bluest districts in the nation. TX-18 recently had a special election where Daniel got 937 votes out of 76,084 ballots cast. He also performed the worst of the Republicans on the ballot.
Daniel told Current Revolt that despite placing dead last among the Republicans with only 937 votes, he plans on still running next November.
Little to no voting history:
Current Revolt spoke to Theodis Daniel yesterday where he confirmed he voted for the first time in his life in 2024. When Current Revolt inquired as to why he had voted Democrat in 2024 he initially claimed he was confused when he voted and didn’t know.
Later, he would tell us that it was impossible that he voted in the Democrat primary election in March of last year and that he only voted in the general election. Daniel said that he may be a victim of voter fraud. Although Daniel did confirm to us that he voted for some Democrats in the general election.
Current Revolt submitted multiple public information requests to the Harris County Clerk office who confirmed that Daniel did vote in the Democrat primary in March of 2024.
The Deputy Director of Compliance of the Harris County Elections Department also confirmed that the ballot signatures for both the Democrat primary and general matched for Daniel.
We reached out to Daniel for comment regarding his matching signature but received no response at the time of publishing.
Cowboy boots and cowboy hat:
Yep. He’s got em.
No fundraising reports and strange side hustle:
FEC.gov shows no financial reports for Daniel.
Current Revolt asked Daniel’s campaign manager, Eddie Smith, about whether this was an error, a complete lack of filing, or if the campaign failed to meet the required threshold of donations to file.
Smith told us that it must be an error and they had raised approximately $12,000.
Theodis Daniel is selling a crypto coin of his son who has terminal brain cancer.
Vote:
Alexander Duncan
Alexander Duncan is running for US Senate in a race against John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, and Wesley Hunt. At any given time you can go to Duncan’s X account where he is exclusively talking about Islam.
No chance at winning:
Duncan has 0% chance at winning a race consisting of Ken Paxton, John Cornyn, and Wesley Hunt. We can’t even locate polling numbers for Duncan and outside of X, nobody has heard of him.
He did manage to pick up an endorsement from Isabella DeLuca, a political influencer on X who is known to take money in exchange for posting ads or political policy without disclosing.
Current Revolt asked Duncan’s campaign manager if they paid for this endorsement and they said they did not. Duncan’s campaign manager told Current Revolt last month that they still think Duncan has a chance at winning and is running a serious race.
Little to no voting history:
Prior to 2025, Duncan has only voted once in 2024.
This may be due to the fact that he moved to Texas only two years ago. Prior to that he was a Beverly Hills police officer.
Cowboy boots and cowboy hat:
Duncan was a Beverly Hills police officer prior to moving to Texas in 2023.
After moving to Texas and announcing his run he put on the cowboy cosplay.
No fundraising reports:
Duncan has no financial records available on FEC.gov. Current Revolt spoke to his campaign manager who told us they did not meet the $5,000 threshold of fundraising required to file a FEC report.
Duncan is soon launching Patriot Pouch, a Christian nicotine pouch company.
VOTE:
Ava Zolari
Ava Zolari is running for CD-2 in Texas against Dan Crenshaw and Steve Toth. We previously wrote about Zolari, who has gone by at least 9 different names and may still be married to man in India.
No chance at winning:
Outside of X, nobody has heard of Zolari. She has 424 followers on her Facebook campaign page and 29 followers on her Instagram page featuring a highly edited AI profile picture. She does have 50,000 followers on her X account where she also spends most of her time posting about Islam.
Little to no voting history:
Zolari’s is still registered to vote in her old married name of Kristen Ann Ravizza.
Prior to 2025 she has never voted in Texas:
Cowboy boots and cowboy hat:
No cowboy boots or cowboy hat!
She does post a LOT of AI generated slop featuring longhorns though:
Here was Zolari in 2017:
No fundraising reports:
There are no FEC financial records for Zolari. When we spoke to Zolari months ago, she told us she had failed to reach the $5,000 fundraising threshold required to file a FEC report.
VOTE:
“Doc” Pete Chambers
“Doc” Pete Chambers is running for Texas Governor and lives in an RV.
No chance at winning:
In 2022, a multi-millionaire, a grassroots leader and former congressman, and a internet celebrity all attempted to unseat Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
They failed to even trigger a runoff.
Doc Chambers says he can do what these guys couldn’t and defeat Greg Abbott.
Little to no voting history:
Prior to 2025, Doc Chambers has voted twice in the last 10 years.
When asked about his lacking voting history, Chambers told Current Revolt that he was busy serving his country and didn’t have time to vote.
Cowboy boots and cowboy hat:
Doc has always worn the cowboy getup. He pulls it off well:
Meager fundraising:
Chambers’ most recent fundraising report shows he’s raised over $30,000. Last month, Chambers told Current Revolt he has had around $300k - $400k worth of in-kind donations.
To put that in comparison, Don Huffines raised $10M and spent $20M and only got 12 points in his race against Greg Abbott.
VOTE:
Valentina Gomez
Valentina Gomez is a political influencer on X who has over half a million followers. She is running in TX-31 against incumbent John Carter.
No chance at winning:
Gomez spends most of her time on X also talking about Islam, a common thing with these types, and making really cringe posts like demanding the FBI provide her a security detail:
Little to no voting history:
Gomez just moved to Texas this year. So prior to 2025 she has no voting history in the State of Texas.
Cowboy cosplay:
She’s very rarely seen in the cowboy getup, but she’s worn it.
Lackluster fundraising:
As of recent FEC reports, Gomez has raised $27,756.
FEC records show she’s spent the money she’s raised on a car rental, a Frontier Airline flight, and an AirBNB rental outside of Texas.
Sholdon Daniels
Sholdon Daniels is a lawyer running for congress in TX30 which is D+25. The incumbent for this district is the notorious Jasmine Crockett.
<1% chance at winning:
Daniels is running in TX30, a D+25 district.
Let’s ask AI what Daniels’ chance of winning is:
“Miracle scenario - less than 1% chance.”
Voting history:
Daniels has a voting history that includes him voting in the Democrat primary in 2018.
Cowboy cosplay:
Daniels, thankfully, doesn’t do the cowboy cosplay. But he does have a really cool blue suit.
Financials:
Daniels has managed to raise $100,000 for his race. Seemingly doing better than even Doc Chambers!
However, what is interesting is he’s spent money on.
-Rent: $4,818
-Office renovations: $3,973
-Flooring: $3,600
-Office supplies, furniture, and electronics: $9,162
This is what many people are saying is quite a lot of money for a small office in a race that has a less than 1% chance of being won.
They are really nice floors though:
Side gig?:
When you go to DanielsforUs.com there is a pop up advertising The Sholdon Daniels Show and directing you to watch on his YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.
Nice suit!
At the office, Daniels also has copies of his book, B.A.N.G, which is available for purchase at Amazon.com.
Without the title of “candidate” most, if not all, of the people listed above would fail to be notable.
I’m the chairman of Honkeys for Valentina PAC
I ran against Phil Graham in 1982 when he switched parties. I had no chance of winning. BUT it gave me a platform. One of my planks was directed energy beam weapons BEFORE REAGAN announced what was dubbed Star Wars. The special election was in February, Reagan annouced Star Wars in March. After my run they raised the cost of filing. Hmmmmmmm. I had multiple interviews with local newspapers up and down that gerrymandered district. I encourage people to run IF they have REAL campaign issues. It gives them a platform. And, IF they have real issues, they should be supported. Whether they can win or not is not the only measuring stick. The benefits of their run may show up in later elections.