Texas Attorney General Sues Harris County Clerk Over Get-Out-the-Vote Ads It Calls Racially Discriminatory
The state sued Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth on Thursday over $43,429 in Meta ads targeted with ethnic-interest tags; her office deactivated the audience subsets the same night and called its outreach lawful.
The Office of the Texas Attorney General sued Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and her communications director, Irene Nunez, on Thursday, claiming the county's 'Plan, Check, Vote!' get-out-the-vote ads on Facebook and Instagram targeted certain racial and ethnic groups while avoiding others, according to Houston Press reporting on the filing read in full this cycle and the Texas Tribune account carried in Lubbock Lights' Friday Ledger. The suit, filed in Harris County district court, asks for a temporary restraining order and temporary and permanent injunctions over an estimated $43,429 in ads.
The attorney general's 16-page complaint says Hudspeth's office intentionally targeted African-American, Asian, and South American or Latino groups using Meta interest tags such as 'African-American history' and 'Latin dance,' and quotes the filing: 'Nothing in the Texas Constitution or the statutes of the State of Texas permit a subdivision of the State to direct targeted ads towards people on the basis of race or ethnicity.' Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is on the November 3 ballot in the U.S. Senate race against Democrat James Talarico, recused himself from the case, his office said.
Hudspeth answered Thursday night in a statement the Press published in full: her office 'is committed to ensuring that all qualified voters have access to accurate, timely, and nonpartisan election information' and is 'confident that our voter outreach efforts are lawful,' and she said the Meta audience subsets 'have been deactivated to avoid unnecessary distractions.' U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee criticized the timing — filed with one day of early voting left — in a statement the Press also carried. Harris County had cast 862,659 early ballots as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Press's reporting.
