The State of Texas, acting through the Office of the Attorney General, filed a lawsuit against Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and Director of Communications Irene Nuñez.
The lawsuit alleges that Hudspeth’s office used Meta’s advertising tools to direct voter-information ads to selected racial and ethnic groups while leaving others out.
The filing came one day before early voting ended and five days before the November 3 general election. Attorney General Ken Paxton is a candidate on the November midterm ballot, so he recused himself, and the suit proceeds in the name of the state and Paxton’s office.
“By classifying based upon race when advertising to provide Harris County voters with election information, the County Clerk’s office exceeded its authority,” the AG’s office wrote in a statement. “It engaged in racially discriminatory advertising in an effort to increase voter turnout among particular races and ethnicities, but not others.”
Hudspeth said her office did not engage in “political rhetoric” or seek to influence votes.
“We are confident that our voter outreach efforts are lawful,” she said in a statement. “Our highest priority remains conducting a successful, transparent, and secure election.”
The suit alleges Meta’s Ad Library shows the County Clerk’s office spent $43,429 on advertisements on “certain populations.”
In turn, Hudspeth’s office deactivated the Meta audience subsets to “avoid unnecessary distractions.”
What the State alleges
The petition, filed in Harris County district court, centers on a series of “Plan. Check. Vote!” ads that the Harris County Elections Department has run on Facebook and Instagram.
Per the filing, the ads began running on Sept. 23, inform viewers of early voting dates and Election Day, and direct users to the department’s website and the “Harris Votes” app.
The State says Meta’s public Ad Library shows that a single trio of ads drew at least 2.7 million impressions, with an estimated expenditure of $20,000 to $25,000.
The dispute is not over the ads’ content but over who they were meant for.
Meta lets advertisers choose “detailed targeting” categories to narrow their audience.
The petition listed dozens of such tags used for these ads, including “African-American History,” “African-American Studies,” “Hispanic Kitchen,” “Latin Dance,” and a long run of country and region names across Africa and Latin America.
The State acknowledges that some settings were appropriate, noting the ads were set to reach adults of both genders in Harris County. But it argues the detailed-targeting tags amount to “preferential targeting of certain racial and ethnic groups.”
The petition points out that the only European locations among the tags were Spain, Barcelona and Madrid, where the primary language is Spanish.
It cites estimated spending on targeted ads of $43,429 over the past 30 days and $10,804 over the past seven days.
The State argues that the Clerk’s office acted without legal authority, noting that no statute authorizes election officials to run voter-turnout campaigns targeting racial groups.
It then asks the court for a temporary restraining order requiring the defendants to deactivate the ads or remove the racial and ethnic targeting terms from them.
Political reaction
Democratic officials quickly condemned the suit.
State Senator Borris L. Miles calls it “absolutely outrageous” and “another example of the Attorney General’s abuse of power.”
He praises Hudspeth’s handling of elections since the county clerk resumed those duties in September 2023, and he extends his support.
“County Clerk Hudspeth has also been at the forefront of educating voters about changes in election law, voter registration, mail-in ballots, when and where to vote in person, and other important election information,” Miles said in a statement.
U.S. Christian D. Menefee is accusing Paxton of filing the case in the final days of voting “because he wants to stop Houstonians from going to the polls.”
“Paxton is upset that diverse voters across Harris County are making their voices heard,” Menefee wrote in a statement. “He doesn’t like that in this election, people are showing up in big numbers in neighborhoods like Third Ward, Acres Homes, Cypress, Tidwell, and Sunnyside.”
What comes next
With the Clerk’s office saying the targeting has already been turned off, it is unclear what a restraining order would accomplish.
The petition itself is a set of allegations, and the defendants have not yet answered in court. The court has not yet ruled on the State’s claims.
Election Day is on Nov. 3.
