Running For Congress, Running From Questions

May 11, 2026

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NEW VIDEO! Running for office is like a job interview, and if you run away from questions before you win, imagine how you’ll act when you get power. That’s the problem Congressional District 38 candidate Jon Bonck has. What’s worse is we were asking about immigration. There are allegations his company has financially benefited off illegal immigration.

Running For Congress, Running From Questions

“We try to do the kind of journalism here that local TV stations and newspapers just don’t really do anymore. And when people refuse to talk to us. We go find them,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.

“Mr. Bonck! How are you doing? I’m Wayne Dolcefino. How come you’re avoiding us?” Dolcefino said.

“Ah, I don’t believe so,” Jon Bonck said.

We showed you a couple of days ago what happened when we finally met up with Jon Bonck, the leading candidate in the Republican runoff in District 38.

He got 47 percent of the vote in the primary. He’s now in a runoff with Shelly Dezavalos. She got nearly 19 percent.

“But will Bonck get to the finish line if he keeps acting like this?” Dolcefino told the camera.

On social media already reaction to our confrontation.

“He hasn’t even been elected yet and he’s acting like this.”

“Why you leaving? Really? You’re running for Congress and avoiding me is that what you want?” Dolcefino said.

“But Mr. Bonck, it turns out, isn’t just running for Congress. He’s running from me,” Dolcefino told the camera.

“Is that what you want to do? You don’t want to explain to taxpayers? OK,” Dolcefino said.

Wesley Hunt is the Congressman in District 38 in West Houston and Northwest Harris County, but he isn’t running for re-election.

Remember, he ran for Texas Senate. He lost.

We made offers to both candidates in the runoff, Bonck and Dezavallos. She said sure.

“This a completely different race. It’s between he and I now, and when you put our resumes together and put our basic conservative principles together, I win hands down,” Shelly Dezevallos said.

We talked to Barrett McNabb. He is one of five losing candidates endorsing Dezevallos too.

“She has an experience of being appointed in the first Trump administration, also in the Governor Abbott in Texas, his administration as well. She is definitely the most qualified candidate. She is a workhorse and not a show horse,” Barrett McNabb said.

“But getting Bonck to talk to us was a different story. And I get it, when you’re ahead in the polls, you try to avoid making a mistake. You often try to avoid the media. And Bonck knew what we were investigating because his campaign manager told us,” Dolcefino told the camera.

“It’s a legitimate question. Go tell him that’s what I want to talk to him about,” Dolcefino said.

“Yeah, we know what you want to talk about,” William Little said.

William Little is a senior associate with Axiom Strategies. They run local political campaigns all over the country.

And he says he likes me.

“I’m a big fan of what y’all do, capital B. I think y’all have got some of the best stories,” William Little said.

“But the Bonck campaign was clearly stalling, and we don’t play that. I want you to listen to one of my reporter Andrea Palacio making that crystal clear. I’m so proud,” Dolcefino told the camera.

“If you don’t respond to us for, you know, for weeks, then we go get you,” Andrea Palacio said.

“We’re a very open campaign. We love press. We love media,” William Little said.

We had warned them, and finally had to do some surveillance to find Mr. Bonck.

“I’ve been trying to talk to you for, like, two weeks. I want to talk to you about immigration. You know, your company provides loans, ITIN loans, to people that are undocumented, doesn’t it?” Dolcefino said.

Bonck refused to say a word.

But we’ve learned more about ITIN loans

That means it’s a way for illegal immigrants to get housing without a Social Security card.

“Is that what you want to do? Really? You don’t want to explain to taxpayers why you’re… Ok,” Dolcefino said.

On the campaign trail, Bonck says he’ll be tough on immigration. Want to deport those here illegally.

“And we have a massive problem when it comes to illegal immigration and legal immigration,” Bonck said.

Bonck and Baker is a mortgage lender that’s been doing business as Network Funding.

In 2024, the company also started doing business as Lasso Lending, all with the same staff.

Lasso Lending promoted itself as a one-stop shop for loans that included ITIN loans connected to Network Funding.

Bonck bragged on social media that a key area of growth for his business was “new programs” that included ITIN loans.

“There’s something else, evidence that Bonck and his partner were trying to systematically scrub these business connections in the final days before the runoff,” Dolcefino told the camera.

The very same day we started our investigation, Secretary of State records show Bonck and Baker were suddenly gone from Network Funding.

Four days later, the day we reached out to Bonck for the first time, Network Funding also abandoned Lasso Lending.

“We had called the loan officer over at Bonck and Baker and we told them that we knew some fold who needed ITIN loans because they didn’t have Social Security numbers,” Dolcefino told the camera.

“Yeah, just put them in touch with me. I can definitely look into it,” Jordan Lawrence said.

But the timing of the scrubbing of these mortgage connections is too obvious to ignore. Just listen to the loan officer.

“We have rebranded. We are no longer Bonck & Baker, but we’ve also made a company shift. So yeah, there’s been a lot of changes in the past month,” Lawrence said.

Bonck portrays himself as tough on immigration. People in the country illegally should be detained and sent back to where they came from.

Yet when asked about border issues at a forum, he said he hadn’t really read up on it.

“I don’t have a direct answer on how to handle the border issues. I’m not well-read on what is going on,” Bonck said.

“You mean immigration? That’s reassuring. Which is exactly why these allegation about the ITIN loans are important. Is Bonck financially benefiting from illegal immigration?” Dolcefino told the camera.

After our confrontation with Mr. Bonck, we followed him to his campaign office, and that guy who likes me so much. He came out to chat.

“Jon’s not going to participate in your interview,” Little said.

And now there was a whole new excuse for Bonck running away.

“And he is happy if you submit the questions,” Little said.

“No, I want to talk to him on camera,” Dolcefino said.

“Well, we’re not going to do like a, we’re going to participate in the interview, like in your video,” Little said.

“Why?” Dolcefino said.

“And I get it,” Little said.

“Why, he’s running for Congress, dude,” Dolcefino said.

Voters in District 38 probably already know that serving in Congress them wasn’t even Bonck’s first choice. He apparently just wants to be in Congress. First, he ran in District 2.

“I started having conversations with a lot of friends of mine that are, you know, in the consulting world. And they’re like, I think you could run a real conservative campaign in CD2 because it’s MAGA red, it’s Ted Cruz red, it’s traditional red, it’s a lot of evangelicals,” Bonck said.

Challenging incumbent Dan Crenshaw in the primary.

But the day after Wesley Hunt vacated District 38 to run for Senate, Bonck jumped ship to District 38. At least he lives there.

He took half a million dollars worth of campaign donations with him. Never gave a penny of it back.

But Bonck has the big guns backing him.

And the support of President Trump.

“But how much of that support is really tied to the fact that Bonck has a rich father-in-law?” Dolcefino told the camera.

Bonck is married to Laura Langston Bonck.

Her daddy is Willie Langston, who was Cruz’s national finance chairman in his 2016 presidential run.

He’s raised more than 90 million for Cruz. Why wouldn’t Cruz love his son-in-law?

Willie serves on the board of Public Square Holdings alongside Donald Trump Jr.

“Is it because his father-in-law has a lot of money? Is that why we are electing him to Congress?” Dolcefino said.

“Oh no, goodness gracious no,” Little said.

“I’m Trump conservative Shelly Dezevallos, pilot, businesswoman, former Trump administration appointee, and fifth-generation Texan,” Dezevallos said.

Dezevallos is president of the West Houston Airport.

When Bonck got Cruz’s endorsement, a Crossroads Today article called Bonck a lifelong Houstonian.

But he was born and raised in Louisiana and came fourteen years ago.

Shortly after his DWI arrest was settled.

But he’s got Christian credentials. He’s a deacon at Houston’s Second Baptist Church.

And his campaign told us they would answer written questions, so I sent a couple.

Bonck said, “I’ve never provided a mortgage to an illegal alien. Never”

But when we asked if his company had, we never got a response. We sent that follow-up question twice.

Silence

“That’s why I don’t like these questions in writing because you start playing word games. It’s a really simple question Mr. Bonck. Did you financially benefit from illegal immigration? It’s not that complicated,” Dolcefino told the camera.

Using Liberty County District Clerk records, we traced mortgages provided by Network Funding to addresses in Colony Ridge, the notorious hotbed of illegal immigrants, the largest colonia in Texas.

“It’s horrific, the fact he’s saying one thing and doing something else. Is he gonna do that to us in Congress? I don’t know,” Dezevallos said.

“We’re providing a link on our website so you can see our email communication back and forth. We think it’s important, because if you do this kind of nonsense now, what are you going to do when you actually get into power?” Dolcefino told the camera.

The campaign manager who loved my work now attacks it.

“He’s just not going to participate in a pay-to-play video,” Little said.

“What’s pay to play?” Dolcefino said.

“An opponent pays you to do the video,” Little said.

One problem. I’m not working for anyone’s campaign.

“Jon got 47 percent of the vote,” Little said.

“I don’t care if he got 100 percent of the vote,” Dolcefino said.

“His opponent got 19,” Little said.

“I’m not working for his opponent,” Dolcefino said.

But the immigration investigation is a legitimate question, and one voters should be demanding full answers to before they vote.

“Answering questions, Mr. Bonck. Well it’s part of the job,” Dolcefino told the camera.