Texas Republicans warn ‘polarizing’ Donald Trump could keep some of their voters at home in secret strategy that reveals Internet dirty tricks plan—and which was leaked to DEMOCRATS
- A Texas GOP plan for the 2020 elections started appearing in the Democrats’ email Monday evening
- The draft document details the party would need to make Donald Trump appear less ‘polarizing’
- It also outlined a plan to buy website domain names of Democratic candidates and instead make it attack websites for those searching the names
- Texas Democrats are trying to take a majority in the statehouse for the first time since 2003 after widening the majority in 2018 by 12 seats
Texas Republicans are trying to make Donald Trump appear less polarizing, according to document detailing the party’s plans for 2020, which was leaked to Texas Democrats Monday.
A document titled ‘Primary/General Election 2020 [Draft]’ created by the chair of the Texas FOP started appearing in Democratic emails Monday evening, the Dallas Morning News reported.
According to the document, the party in the highly red state is trying to mitigate ‘the polarizing nature’ of Trump ahead of the 2020 general elections.
The strategy would include negative attacks toward Democrats on candidate website and attempting to highlight the diversity of the Republican party to counter a ‘narrative driven by Democrats’ that the GOP lacks diversity.
Texas Republicans document detailing its plan for winning in 2020 was leaked to Democrats, and the email said it would need to make Donald Trump less ‘polarizing’
It details that the GOP would purchase online domain names affiliated with the names of Democratic candidates so those searching for the candidate would be rerouted to negative attack websites.
‘For example, we will purchase ZwienerforTexas.com, ZwienerforTX.com, and so on,’ the document reads.
The plan details that the party will audit search engine optimization results to make sure that the negative attack websites are on the front pages of various search engines.
The state’s GOP, the strategy outlines, is also heavily targeting 12 statehouse districts in Texas so the party can maintain their majority.
‘Starting after the Primary, the RPT will generate microsites for negative hits against the Democrat candidates in our twelve target race—we expect each microsite to be roughly $500,’ the document reads. ‘We will then begin rolling out these websites, prioritizing the races that were within 4% in the 2018 election.’
Rep. Erin Zwiener of Driftwood is among one of the Democrats in the document.
Democrats in Texas are trying to take a majority in the House for the first time since 2003 after increasing their representation with 12 seats in the 2018 elections, narrowing the Republican majority to 83-67.
James Dickey, the chair of the Texas GOP, said Monday night the gaffe in sending out the document was a mistake by a staffer who ‘drafted some initial thoughts for discussion, adding that ‘it should not be news’ that Republicans want to to take back the seats they lost in 2018.
‘We are doing that so we continue to dominate in 2020 just like we have for 25 years in Texas,’ Dickey said.
Although the strategies outlined in the plan are not uncommon in politics, their public disclosure, especially if that disclosure is unwanted or embarrassing, is unusual.