Rep. Crenshaw Responds to Reports About Payments to Firm That Employs His Wife

Crenshaw's office says they've followed all applicable laws and regulations.

Rep.-elect Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) talks with reporters as he arrives for a class photo with incoming newly elected members of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) responded to reports that his campaign has paid more than $350,000 to a firm that employs his wife since 2020, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.

The firm Pink Cilantro is a Houston-based branding firm that has been in operation since 2013 and has been commissioned by the Crenshaw campaign in the past.

Since 2020, Crenshaw’s campaign has given Pink Cilantro more than $350,000 in funding, FEC records show. Crenshaw’s legally required financial disclosures report Pink Cilantro as “spouse salary.”

In comments to the Daily Caller, who first broke the story, both the owner of the firm and spokespeople for Crenshaw’s campaign insisted that the donations had been entirely in line with federal law.

A spokesman for Crenshaw said that while the congressman’s wife, Tara Crenshaw, was still in the employ of Pink Cilantro, her work was separate from the work commissioned by Crenshaw’s campaign.

A section of Rep. Crenshaw's financial disclosures labels Pink Cilantro as "spouse salary."

Pink Cilantro was first commissioned by Crenshaw to develop his branding in 2018, when Crenshaw mounted his first bid for office.

According to Open Secrets, Crenshaw’s campaign has paid Pink Cilantro just over $260,000 in 2022 as part of Crenshaw’s reelection bid.

Financial disclosures by Open Secrets show that Pink Cilantro has been commissioned by Reps. Crenshaw and Kinzinger in 2022.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), whose work on the Jan. 6 Committee has alienated him from other Republicans, also commissioned Pink Cilantro this year for his new organization, Country First. Kinzinger was reportedly impressed by the success of the firm in marketing Crenshaw. Kinzinger is not seeking reelection.

‘A Non-Issue’: Crenshaw Spokesman

Justin Discigil, a spokesman for Crenshaw, called the story a “non-issue,” and denied any wrongdoing by Crenshaw, his wife, or his campaign staff.

“It’s not his wife’s firm,” Discigil said. “Tara doesn’t own pink cilantro. She had no role in establishing Pink Cilantro. Tara was contracted by Pink Cilantro to do promotion and distribution management for Dan’s book, ‘Fortitude.’ Okay, so all of the money that she earned working for Pink Cilantro was solely related to the book and it was commissioned from book sales.”

Discigil confirmed reports that Tara Crenshaw’s total income from Pink Cilantro was $60,000, and was all from her work on marketing and promoting her husband’s book.

The spokesman added that Crenshaw’s campaign has worked with Pink Cilantro since well before Crenshaw’s wife began working for the firm, explaining that Pink Cilantro has done most of their promotion work since Crenshaw’s campaign in 2018.

“[Crenshaw] started working with [Pink Cilantro] going back to when he started running for office,” Discigil explained. “They manage and design all of our websites. So the current Crenshaw for Congress website, the Crenshaw Youth Summit website, they manage all of those.”

He continued: “They also do all of our merchandise, so they design our merchandise. They distribute our merchandise. They handle our online store. And when we hold events like recently, we had the Crenshaw Youth Summit, they design and set up booths to sell our merchandise and stack them with their employees to sell our merchandise. They also do lead generation for us on Facebook with Facebook ads and design graphics for Facebook ads.”

Tara Crenshaw only onboarded with Pink Cilantro, Discigil said, in 2020 as part of the team to market Crenshaw’s book. He emphasized that she has done no work on the campaign side of the firm.

“Tara was paid for specific services, you know, by a firm that we use for a completely different set of services,” Discigil added. “And all of this is done under in full compliance with all relevant rules and regulations.”