The Harris County Clerk’s Office has agreed to remove election advertisements that used demographic-based targeting settings on social media as part of a settlement reached with the state of Texas. The settlement also bars the office from reactivating those ad settings for the remainder of the election period.
The Office of Attorney General filed a lawsuit Thursday against Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and her Director of Communications, accusing the office of using Meta’s advertising tools to target its “Get Out the Vote” ads toward certain racial and ethnic groups while excluding others. The Harris County Clerk’s Office spent an estimated $43,429 over 30 days on ads that included ad-targeting tags tied to African-American literature, Latin music, Hispanic kitchen and East Asia.
Attorney General Ken Paxton is on the November ballot as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and his office said he was recusing himself from the lawsuit.
On Thursday night, clerk Hudspeth announced the audience tags had been removed “to avoid unnecessary distractions,” while maintaining the office’s voter outreach efforts were lawful. The Harris County Attorney’s Office called the lawsuit a “pathetic political distraction.”
A University of Houston Law Center professor told KPRC 2 that the state would have needed to prove intent — not just show who saw the ads — to prevail in court.
“It reflects the fact that the government should not be involved in racial profiling,” said law professor Seth Chandler.
The settlement comes as Harris County has surpassed 1 million early votes cast ahead of the November 3 election. That’s a record for early turnout in a non-presidential election. Turnout has also nearly doubled in some predominantly Black communities compared to 2022.
