The Office of the Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Clerk for running racially discriminatory advertisements.
The announcement from the OAG accuses the clerk’s office of using “Meta’s ad tools to intentionally target its ‘Get Out the Vote’ style ads to certain racial and ethnic groups while avoiding targeting other demographics.”
On Monday, the Harris County Elections Department was accused of using Meta’s “detailed targeting” function to target a nonwhite, Spanish-speaking audience in its early voting reminder ads. Nonwhite demographics have been shown to consistently affiliate with the Democrat Party over the Republican Party, with the opposite being true of white demographics.
“This is an official government office. Race shouldn’t even be a consideration for them, and DEFINITELY not for their ‘remember to vote’ ads,” investigative researcher Parker Thayer wrote in a post to X. “This seems like a clear attempt to try and boost turnout among the demographics most favorable to Talarico.”
The OAG would seem to agree with Thayer’s assessment of the situation.
“By classifying based upon race when advertising to provide Harris County voters with election information, the County Clerk’s office exceeded its authority,” according to the OAG. “It engaged in racially discriminatory advertising in an effort to increase voter turnout among particular races and ethnicities, but not others.”
The OAG also noted that the “Harris County Clerk’s office spent an estimated $43,429 in the past thirty days on one set of advertisements that it set to be shown preferentially to certain populations.”
Advancing Integrity President Christine Welborn told Texas Scorecard in an earlier statement that the use of taxpayer dollars to run the ads was “the biggest issue.”
“Essentially, this is a government entity engaging in election engineering. They should target everyone or no-one,” Welborn stated.
The OAG clarified that, because Attorney General Ken Paxton is the current Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, he has “recused himself from the lawsuit.”
“The State brings this ultra vires suit (i.e., a suit filed against a government official in their official capacity) to ensure that all Texans have an equal opportunity to be informed of and participate in the electoral process, regardless of race or demographic,” the OAG announcement reads.
The Harris County Clerk’s Office has not responded to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
