Texas GOP to launch fake campaign sites targeting Dems

"Texas Republicans plan to use a disinformation campaign to help them win back a dozen state House races in 2020, buying up website domains that look like they belong to Democratic candidates and loading the sites with negative information, according to a leaked document from the party," Andrea Zelinski reports for the Houston Chronicle. "Republicans are seeking to maintain control of the Texas House after a bruising 2018 election cycle. If Republicans lose nine seats in the 2020 elections, Democrats would take control of the chamber and have a leading role in drawing new congressional and legislative district boundaries after next year’s census."

The plan to spread misinformation through fake campaign sites is akin to recent partisan efforts to spread biased content through websites masquerading as local news sites.

Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey confirmed that the document was authentic, and told the Chronicle he wasn't sure why it's news that "we’re aggressively working to earn the support of all Texas voters for all our candidates," and said that the draft discusses just one of the strategies they plan to use to increase GOP voter turnout, Zelinski reports. Other strategies in the document include publishing videos that highlight diversity within the Republican party and finding ways to combat President Trump's "polarizing nature."