Large mail pieces focused on transgender issues arrived at many Republican and Hispanic households during the first two days of early voting in a competitive Texas election, prompting questions about who funded and distributed them.
The mailers came from a group calling itself the Texas Transgender Student Union and were presented as a resource guide for transgender students living with unsupportive families. The materials directed recipients to real LGBTQ organizations for support.
However, at least one of those organizations publicly stated it was not involved with the mail campaign.
The Transgender Education Network of Texas posted a statement on its website saying:
“These text messages and mailers were not authored, authorized, approved, or distributed by TENT and are not affiliated with our organization. The texts do not represent the official position or communications of the organization.”
Campaign finance expert Anna Massoglia, an editor at MuckRock, said the mailers appear to fall into a gray area of political advertising because they do not explicitly support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure.
“This is a mailer that does not mention an actual candidate, which makes it fall into a grey area in a lot of places because it doesn’t necessarily provide a lot of information on who is funding it,” Massoglia said.
According to Wyoming state records cited in the report, the Texas Transgender Student Union is registered as a limited liability company in Sheridan, Wyoming. The registration is tied to a building that houses hundreds of thousands of business registrations.
Massoglia said organizations often use Wyoming for greater privacy.
“It’s tough. It’s not uncommon for very opaque groups, shell companies, dark money groups to be registered in Wyoming. Delaware is another state that we see these groups registered in due to lack of transparency and disclosure requirements,” Massoglia said.
Transgender issues have been a major topic in the race between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and state lawmaker James Talarico.
Massoglia said the timing of the mailers, which coincided with the start of early voting, may have been intended to generate an emotional response, create confusion, or motivate voters to participate in the election.
The report noted that roughly half a billion dollars has been spent on the race. It also said the Federal Election Commission currently lacks a quorum, limiting its ability to take action on election-related complaints.
As a result, questions about whether political text messages and mailers are truthful or legal may ultimately be left for voters to evaluate themselves.
“This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.”
