GOP PAC Denies Funding Fake Trans Group Campaign in Texas
The Facts
- A lawyer for the Republican Women's Caucus Fund (RWCF) said Sunday that federal PAC spending limits made it impossible for the group to fund texts and mailers sent to potentially millions of Texans, which posed as a transgender student group and promoted resources on school bathrooms, gender-affirming care and emancipation.
- The Texas Supreme Court stayed a lower court's deposition order Friday, about 15 minutes before a representative of the Texas Transgender Student Union was set to testify. The Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), which denied authoring, approving or distributing the messages, said it had enough information to sue.
- Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer ordered messaging company Infobip to identify the client behind texts sent in TENT's name. Court records made public Thursday listed the Republican Women's Caucus Fund and a person named John Braun as clients.
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The Spin
Democratic narrative
Faking a transgender student union and mass-mailing kids about gender identity and emancipation right before early voting is a dirty trick to exploit Texas' anti-trans sentiment. A Wyoming LLC lawyered up by Ken Paxton's former impeachment attorney, Chris Hilton, reeks of sabotage meant to smear the Transgender Education Network of Texas. Harassment and threats followed, and whoever footed the bill owes Texans an answer.
Republican narrative
Getting named by a text vendor is not evidence of wrongdoing, and federal contribution limits make it impossible for a small PAC to bankroll a blitz of that size. Even TENT's own attorney, Mimi Marziani, concedes the trail may lead only to a shared right-wing vendor. Smearing a conservative women's group days before an election, with no contract and no money trail, is reckless.
