Trump Tried to Recruit Mail Voters in Texas
Despite State High Court Houston Roadblock

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
September 3, 2020

Democrats cried foul on Wednesday night amid revelations that President Donald Trump's campaign has been sending applications for mail ballots to voters in Texas where the state's highest court blocked an attempt by a local Democratic official in Harris County from doing the same.

The Texas Democratic Party blew the whistle on the president after intercepting a campaign mailer that it said thousands of Texas voters didn't request but received nonetheless complete with the official form to fill out to secure a ballot to cast through the postal service.

The Democrats portrayed the Trump campaign mail voter recruitment initiative as a "shocking display of hypocrisy" in light of the president's steadfast opposition to mail voting on the grounds that Joe Biden and the Democrats are plotting to steal the election at the post office.

The surfacing of the Trump mail voting pitch came about the same time that the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court granted Attorney General Ken Paxton's bid to stop Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins from mailing postal ballot applications to more than two million registered voters in the Houston area.

Hollins, a Democrat who ousted an incumbent Republican in 2018, had modified his plans after being taken court by the state with an agreement to only send mail ballot applications to voters who are 65 or older or eligible to vote by mail under existing state law.

TDP Communications Director Abhi Rahman characterized the conflicting events with the state Supreme Court and the Trump campaign as another sign of desperation by Republicans who could be on the brink of losing Texas at the top of the ticket for the first time in 44 years and the state House majority as a down-ballot victim.

"While the partisan Texas Republican Supreme Court continues to block people from voting by mail in the middle of a pandemic, Donald Trump and the Texas Republican Party have been pushing vote-by-mail applications themselves," Rahman said. "Much like Trump, Texas Republicans have been exposed as hypocrites to the highest degree. Voting by mail is safe, secure, and convenient. It’s time to end this debate and expand voting by mail to every eligible Texan, once and for all.”