The Harris County Clerk’s Office agreed on Friday to remove racially targeted voter outreach ads it placed on social media in connection with the 2026 General Election.
The agreement came after the Texas Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and Irene Nunez, the Director of Communications for the Harris County Clerk’s Office, on Thursday. The lawsuit alleged that the Harris County Clerk’s Office unlawfully targeted voter awareness ads encouraging participation in the November 3 election to certain racial or ethnic groups.
According to a statement issued by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Harris County Clerk’s Office “agreed to remove the advertisements that used racially discriminatory targeting settings and refrain from reactivating those settings during the applicable election period.”
The lawsuit alleged that the Harris County Clerk’s Office used “detailed targeting” based on racial demographics for ads placed on Meta’s social media platforms that encouraged readers to “Plan. Check. Vote!” in the upcoming election.
The “detailed targeting” tags utilized by the Harris County Clerk’s office in the ad campaign were Africa, African art, Afrobeat, African dance, African-American Literature, African-American History, Columbia, Latin Dance, Puerto Rico, Spanish Language, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Peru, Venezuela, Barcelona, Hispanic Kitchen, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Latin Music (genre), Latin Music, Dominican Republic, Spain, Spanish as a second language, Madrid, Laos, Thailand, Asia, Vietnam, South Asia, China, Philippines, Pakistan, Bangkok, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, East Asia, and African-American Studies.
“By specifically directing voting advertisements to these and many other racial or ethnic “detailed targeting” terms, it is readily apparent that Harris County is attempting to increase the likelihood that only certain racial and ethnic groups—but not all—will vote,” the lawsuit alleged.
As part of the lawsuit, the Texas Attorney General’s Office sought to have the Defendants “immediately deactivate all racially-targeted voting advertisements, or, in the alternative, to remove all racial and ethnic ‘detailed targeting’ items from these advertisements.
While the agreement with Harris County officials achieved the State’s desired outcome, Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin tried to spin it as a victory for Harris County.
“Ken Paxton is clearly grasping at straws, trying to remain relevant and manufacture distractions. The Agreement is a win for Harris County, ensuring the Attorney General’s preposterous and baseless claims do not take away time and resources from critical county operations—Paxton’s thinly veiled political stunt has taken enough of our time. Today’s agreement lets us get back to the work that matters for the people of Harris County. We have seen bad actors try to lay the groundwork to undermine confidence in our elections and our democratic process. We won’t stand for it. We will continue to defend Harris County and every eligible voter’s rights,” said Kamin, who had defended the legality of the ad campaign in a separate statement issued before the agreement.
As a current U.S. Senate candidate, Paxton recused himself from the lawsuit against Harris County.
