AUSTIN, TEXAS—A fraudulent text message about a challenger to Speaker Dade Phelan circulates the Lone Star State, raising questions about the sender and their motives.
On Tuesday, the mass text message, sent to an unknown number of recipients, falsely purported to come from a group called “Texans for Conservative Leadership.” The message was crafted to attack State Rep. David Cooke (R-Mansfield), who is currently challenging Phelan for Speaker of the House in the next legislative session.
“Texans can’t afford to have an untrustworthy Speaker,” the text said, referencing Cook’s vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Ironically, Phelan was also among the sixty House Republicans who voted to impeach Paxton without a single shred of evidence—the Speaker actually spearheaded the House impeachment process.
An Austin-based reporter at The Texan posted the text on X, asserting that it was sent out by “the Tim Dunn-funded Texans for Conservative Leadership.”
This group, the TCL PAC, was founded earlier this year and has already sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the campaigns of conservative elected officials and candidates.
However, Shelby Griesinger, treasurer of the group, promptly denied the accusation. She also took to X and posted, “I am the treasurer of Texans for Conservative Leadership PAC. This was not sent out by our PAC.”
Later, this post was deleted and replaced with a more formal denial that stated, “Texans for Conservative Leadership says this text attacking [David Cook] was not sent from them.”
The actual sender(s) of the text message have yet to be identified—but it appears that it was sent out by a 501c4 organization operating under a nearly identical name: Texans for Conservative Leader Ship.
Tony McDonald, TCL PAC’s lawyer, says the case has been referred to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office for investigation.
“If I were these people’s lawyer, I’d be telling them to hire a criminal defense lawyer as well. Defrauding Texans is not just a matter of civil law, it can have criminal implications, too. Texans are rightly outraged when bad actors steal identities and impersonate others in an effort to dupe citizens,” McDonald said.
At this point, it is unclear whether the name of the 501c4 is a deliberate deception scheme to create a legal defense. If it is, it won’t be successful, McDonald says.
“If they think they’re going to get away by calling it ‘Texans for Conservative Leader Ship,’ that plan is taking on water fast, and ought to be scuttled immediately,” he said.
Cook remarked on the smear campaign, calling it “desperate.” He pointed out that the new organization was “just registered less than a week ago.”
Phelan has not yet addressed the text message and whether his campaign was responsible.
