GOP Women's Group Named Behind Fake Trans Campaign Telling Texas Kids How To Bypass Unsupportive Parents

Court records have named a Republican women's fundraising group and a senior GOP lawmaker as clients of a messaging firm that sent fake pro‑transgender rights texts to Texas voters using the name of a real advocacy group just weeks before the midterms.

A messaging company identified the Republican Women's Caucus Fund and Washington state senator John Braun as clients linked to the texts. Both deny any involvement. Separately, a Wyoming‑registered company behind mailers urging teenagers to turn to a 'safe adult' won a temporary reprieve from the Texas Supreme Court.

Nothing yet links the fund to the mailers.

Messaging Firm Names Its Clients in Fake Text Storm

The texts began arriving on 12 October from several numbers. They advertised guides to 'bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school' and offered answers about gender-affirming care in Texas, KSAT reported. They linked to the website of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, known as TENT, which did not send them.

Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer ordered the messaging company, Infobip, to answer written questions identifying the client associated with them. Its answers identified the Republican Women's Caucus Fund as the client. An individual, John Braun, was also listed as a client associated with the messages.

Braun is a Republican state senator in Washington, KBTX reported. The texts appear to have gone mostly to Republican voters

The fund denied any involvement. 'We did not authorize, fund, direct, coordinate, or participate in these activities in any capacity,' it said in a statement, calling the allegations false and saying it was pursuing legal remedies. Braun also denied involvement.

Mailers Urged Teens To Seek a 'Safe Adult'

Separately, a wave of mailers arrived by post. Beginning on 17 October, the Saturday before early voting began on 19 October, pamphlets from a Wyoming-registered company called the Texas Transgender Student Union landed in homes across Texas, addressed to 'students'.

They told young people whose parents did not support their identity to talk to a 'safe adult' or an advocacy group, including TENT. They carried a section on emancipation, photos of TENT events and merchandise, and a return address closely resembling TENT's own.

TENT's lawyers say more than three million pamphlets were mailed. The true number is unknown. KSAT reported that USPS records linked at least one of the pamphlets to the commercial printer Three Z.

CBS News Texas reported last week that the US Postal Service identified Three Z Printing, an Illinois company, as the holder of the bulk-mail permit used, though a permit alone does not show who created or paid for the material.

It is not clear whether the texts and the mailers came from the same source. TENT believes they did, its lawyer Mimi Marziani said, but there is currently no evidence linking them.

Supreme Court Halts Key Deposition at Last Minute

Soifer had also ordered a representative of the Wyoming company to sit for a deposition. On Friday 30 October, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked the questioning 15 minutes before it was due to begin. It gave no reasons.

The Wyoming-registered company is represented by Chris Hilton, a former lawyer in Attorney General Ken Paxton's office who defended Paxton at his 2023 impeachment trial. Hilton said he also represents Infobip's clients.

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, Soifer had rejected the company's motion to dismiss, and the company had signalled it would appeal to the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, according to a filing obtained by The Texas Tribune.

In a court filing, the Wyoming company argued that forcing a representative to testify would infringe its First Amendment right to speak anonymously. The Supreme Court's order is temporary and does not rule on that argument. It said it 'has no plans to engage in any more communications like those at issue here'.

Marziani said TENT already has enough information to sue some of those responsible, but declined to give details. TENT must respond to the company's emergency motion by 10am on Monday, under the court's order.

Threats, Forgery Probe and Questions Over Political Motive

TENT says the campaign has brought 'an onslaught of hate and threats' through social media and email, including threats of violence. It sent cease-and-desist letters to the texting service as soon as complaints arrived.

Sarah Stogner, the Republican district attorney for Loving, Reeves and Ward counties, is investigating the mailers for potential forgery, a state jail felony under Texas law. No one has been charged. 'If this ends up being legal, it is everything that is wrong with our current political climate,' she said.

Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University, told KSAT the mailers appeared timed to coincide with early voting and designed to provoke parents, potentially pushing voters towards Republican candidates. Their subtle presentation, he said, could make the political purpose less obvious.

Republican state Representative Jeff Leach of Plano had earlier asked Paxton to investigate, later writing that the materials 'may not originate from the group whose name it was sent under'.