Patriot Mobile is a wireless carrier based in Grapevine, Texas that markets itself as "America's only Christian conservative wireless provider." It is a mobile virtual network operator, meaning it does not own cellular towers but resells access to the AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon networks under its own brand.[1] Founded in 2013, the company built its identity entirely around faith and conservative politics, promising customers that part of what they pay each month funds causes the company supports.[1]
Few companies in any industry wear their politics as openly as Patriot Mobile. The political alignment is not a side project here; it is the product. The company tells customers that buying phone service is a way to "vote with your wallet," and it has put real money and organizational muscle behind that pitch, most visibly through a political action committee that reshaped a cluster of Texas school boards.[2]
- A company executive ran for Texas state Senate and lost a deep-red seat in a national upset.
- The headquarters hosts weekly Bible studies, one led by Pastor Rafael Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz's father.
- Its super PAC went 11 for 11 backing school board candidates in 2022, then watched most lose by 2025.
- The company tells customers that buying phone service is a way to vote with your wallet.
- A politically branded carrier that runs entirely on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon networks it does not own.
Quick Take
Patriot Mobile is about as openly conservative as a consumer brand gets. It describes its giving through "Four Pillars": First Amendment religious liberty, Second Amendment gun rights, the sanctity of life, and support for veterans and first responders.[1] In 2022 it created a super PAC, Patriot Mobile Action, seeded with roughly $650,000, that backed 11 winning candidates across four North Texas school boards.[3] CEO Glenn Story appeared at CPAC 2025 on a panel the company billed as being about "crushing woke boardrooms," and the company says it hosts weekly Bible studies at its headquarters, one of them led by Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz.[4][5] By 2025 many of the candidates it elected had been voted back out, but the company's political posture has not softened.[6]
What the Company Actually Sells
Patriot Mobile sells postpaid wireless plans (talk, text, and 4G/5G data) to consumers nationwide, running on the three major carriers' networks rather than its own.[1] Because it is an MVNO that layers a cause-based mission on top of resold service, its plans generally cost more than budget MVNOs that compete purely on price; one industry comparison put a 40 GB Patriot Mobile plan at $78 a month against a $50 unlimited plan from a mainstream carrier.[7] The company leans on a U.S.-based customer support team and a referral discount program, and it pitches the price premium as the cost of funding conservative causes.[1][7] Press reporting estimated it had just under 100,000 subscribers as of 2022, a figure the company has not formally disclosed.[1]
The Four Pillars and Where the Money Goes
The company's central promise is that a portion of every dollar of revenue funds conservative and Christian causes organized around its Four Pillars.[1] Beyond the school-board PAC discussed below, leadership has said the company has directed donations to organizations including Turning Point USA and Concerned Women for America, and CEO Glenn Story has stated that the school-board PAC received less than 25% of the company's total cause donations.[8] These are the company's own characterizations of its giving; the specific dollar totals to outside groups are not independently itemized in public filings the way federal PAC spending would be.
The School Board Campaign
Patriot Mobile's most consequential political act was local, not national. In early 2022 the company created Patriot Mobile Action, a Texas super PAC, and initially funded it with about $650,000 in cash and in-kind contributions.[3] As an independent expenditure committee, the PAC can spend without limit to support or oppose candidates but cannot legally coordinate that spending with the campaigns it backs.[3] The PAC poured money into nominally nonpartisan school board races in four Fort Worth-area districts: Carroll, Keller, Mansfield, and Grapevine-Colleyville.[3] It blanketed those communities with mailers warning that incumbent trustees were exposing children to critical race theory and "woke" ideology, and presented its own slate as candidates who would keep political agendas out of classrooms.[3] In May 2022, all 11 candidates it endorsed and financially backed won their races.[1]
The PAC is run by Leigh Wambsganss, a longtime conservative activist who co-founded the earlier Southlake Families PAC and serves as the company's chief communications officer.[3][6] Its stated objective, in the company's own words, was to start in Tarrant County, then expand to all of Texas and then "every state in the country," framing the county as "critical to keeping Texas Red."[9]
The arc did not hold. By the 2025 elections, voters in the same suburbs reversed much of the gain: all three Patriot Mobile-backed Mansfield ISD trustees up for reelection were defeated, and conservatives also lost ground on the Grapevine-Colleyville, Keller, and Arlington boards.[6] Of the original 11 winning candidates, only four remained on their boards by the 2025-2026 school year.[1] The company's political operation, in other words, scored an early and well-documented victory and then ran into an organized backlash.
Statewide and Candidate Spending
Patriot Mobile Action's reach extended past school boards. In the 2022 cycle the PAC also reported advertising spending in support of statewide Republicans, including Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, among others.[10] Its leadership has also reached for higher office. Wambsganss, who runs the PAC and serves as the company's chief communications officer, ran for a North Texas state Senate seat (District 9) in a January 31, 2026 special election runoff, backed by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and President Donald Trump and outspending her opponent by a wide margin. She lost the deep-red, long-Republican district to Democrat Taylor Rehmet by 57% to 43%, an upset that drew national attention; the two are set for a rematch in November 2026 for a full term.[11]
Leadership and Faith Identity
Patriot Mobile is privately held and was founded in 2013; Glenn Story is its co-founder and CEO and remains its public face.[12][4] The company makes no separation between its faith identity and its operations. It hosts optional weekly Bible studies at its Grapevine headquarters led by Pastor Rafael Cruz, tells customers its customer-service agents may pray with callers, and sends executives to conservative gatherings such as CPAC, where Story appeared on a 2025 panel on challenging "woke" influence in corporate America.[4][5] In December 2025 the Christian Employers Alliance gave Story its "Kingdom Impact Award" for integrating Biblical principles into business leadership.[13]
Controversy
Patriot Mobile's prominence has drawn scrutiny as well as praise. Its school-board spending generated organized opposition, including a petition pressuring T-Mobile to reconsider leasing network capacity to the company; T-Mobile responded that it has no influence over Patriot Mobile's operations and simply rents excess network capacity.[14] In May 2024, TechCrunch reported that Patriot Mobile had suffered a data breach exposing subscribers' full names, email addresses, home ZIP codes, and account PINs; as of 2025 the company had not publicly acknowledged the breach.[15] Critics have also questioned the PAC's federal registration history.[16] These items speak to the company's conduct and operations and are noted here for completeness.
Where to Find Them
Patriot Mobile sells directly to consumers at patriotmobile.com and by phone, shipping SIM cards and preactivated devices nationwide.[1] Because it operates on all three major U.S. networks, it offers coverage comparable to the large carriers in most areas, and it advertises the ability to switch a customer between underlying networks if one performs poorly in their location.[1]
Footnotes
[1] Wikipedia, "Patriot Mobile," accessed June 22, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Mobile
[2] Patriot Mobile, Mobilizing Freedom (company website), accessed June 22, 2026. https://patriotmobile.com/
[3] Brian Lopez, The Texas Tribune, "Christian company's PAC pours cash into Tarrant County school board races," May 5, 2022. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/05/texas-school-board-elections-2/
[4] Patriot Mobile, "Patriot Mobile Joins Thousands of Patriots at CPAC 2025," 2025. https://patriotmobile.com/news/patriot-mobile-joins-thousands-of-patriots-at-cpac-2025
[5] Patriot Mobile, "Patriot Mobile CEO Shares Faith and Leadership Lessons in Granite City, Illinois," March 25, 2025. https://patriotmobile.com/news/patriot-mobile-ceo-shares-faith-and-leadership-lessons-in-granite-city-illinois
[6] Jasper Scherer, The Texas Tribune, "School board races across Texas deal losses for many conservatives," May 6, 2025. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/05/texas-school-board-races/
[7] Really.com, "Who Owns Patriot Mobile & What Network Do They Use?," accessed June 22, 2026. https://www.really.com/post/who-owns-patriot-mobile-what-network-do-they-use
[8] Brody Ford and others, Denton Record-Chronicle (Bloomberg), "T-Mobile faces backlash on ties to conservative carrier in Texas," October 16, 2022. https://dentonrc.com/t-mobile-faces-backlash-on-ties-to-conservative-carrier-in-texas/article_29b269e0-e139-5925-9368-1d51b3746d64.html
[9] Patriot Mobile, Announcing: Patriot Mobile Action (company website), accessed June 22, 2026. https://patriotmobile.com/solutions/patriot-mobile-action
[10] APM Research Lab, "Campaign Contributions for School Board Elections," January 11, 2023. https://www.apmresearchlab.org/blog/campaign-finance-school-boards
[11] Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune, "Democrat wins special election for red Texas Senate seat," January 31, 2026. https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/30/texas-senate-district-9-runoff-rehmet-wambsganss-special-election/
[12] The Org, "Glenn Story, Co-Founder at Patriot Mobile," accessed June 22, 2026. https://theorg.com/org/patriot-mobile/org-chart/glenn-story
[13] Christian Employers Alliance, "CEA Honors Patriot Mobile Founder Glenn Story with Kingdom Impact Award," December 17, 2025. https://christianemployersalliance.org/Newsroom/cea-honors-glenn-story-patriot-mobile-founder/
[14] Denton Record-Chronicle (Bloomberg), "T-Mobile faces backlash on ties to conservative carrier in Texas," October 16, 2022. https://dentonrc.com/t-mobile-faces-backlash-on-ties-to-conservative-carrier-in-texas/article_29b269e0-e139-5925-9368-1d51b3746d64.html
[15] Wikipedia, "Patriot Mobile" (citing TechCrunch reporting, May 2024), accessed June 22, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Mobile
[16] Edward Brown, Fort Worth Weekly, "School Board Patriots on the Move," May 5, 2023. https://www.fwweekly.com/2023/05/05/school-board-patriots-on-the-move/
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