Fake trans advocacy texts, mailers sent to Texas voters before early voting

Who's involved

• Mimi Marziani · Austin attorney representing TENT^[1]
• Garrett Fulce · Republican political consultant^[1]
• Alex Quilici · CEO of Dallas-based robocall blocking service YouMail^[1]

The facts

1. Text messages were sent to Texans using a West Texas 432 area code the week before early voting began in the 2026 midterm elections, one message promoting a 'Back to School Toolkit' from TENT and another about gender-affirming care in Texas.^[1]
2. TENT stated in a message on October 13, 2026 that the text messages were not authored, authorized, approved or distributed by TENT and did not represent the organization's official position or communications.^[1]
3. TENT asked a judge in Travis County to force the people behind the messages to share more information about them.^[1]
4. Mailers were sent to Texans across the state from San Antonio to the Panhandle, addressed to 'students' of the recipient households and purporting to be a guide for transgender, nonbinary and questioning youth.^[1]
5. All four LGBTQ+ organizations named in the mailer told The Texas Newsroom they were not involved in creating, funding or authorizing the mailer.^[1]
6. TENT's attorney traced the phone numbers' registration to Peerless Network, a telecommunications provider based in Chicago, and its parent company, Infobip.^[1]
7. TENT's attorney sent a 'cease and desist' letter to the company on October 14, 2026 demanding it stop the texts.^[1]
8. Infobip responded two days after receiving the cease and desist letter, saying it was reviewing the matter and taking certain 'precautionary measures' but would not specify what those measures were or divulge the identity of the customer who registered the phone number.^[1]

Who said what

• Political consultants, attorneys and civil rights advocates The communications were part of an effort to foment anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, either to prompt voters to select Republican candidates or dampen their enthusiasm for Democrats.^[1]
• Mimi Marziani, TENT's attorney Somebody spent a lot of money to smear TENT and create confusion and division among the Texas electorate during the early voting period, and the person or persons responsible have gone to great lengths to shield their identity from the Texas public.^[1]
• Garrett Fulce, Republican political consultant Sometimes the goal of politics is to prevent people who support your opponent from wanting to vote for them, not just to get your people to vote for your person or switch people.^[1]
• Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail Companies like Infobip and Peerless Network function similarly to T-Mobile or other carriers by getting a customer's message from point A to point B, and these carriers don't always know if their service is being used for allegedly harmful activity.^[1]
• Infobip It does not generally have control over messages sent by its customers, other than to filter out material such as hate speech, alcohol marketing or sexually explicit content.^[1]