Mysterious mailers flooding red state mailboxes ignite suspicion of GOP midterm op

A mysterious mailer offering Texas students guidance on emancipation and out-of-state medical care is landing in mailboxes under the name of a trans group that doesn’t appear to exist, and critics suspect it’s a GOP scheme to fire up conservative voters before the midterms.

The mailers use branding similar to the Transgender Education Network of Texas, but the group said it had nothing to do with them or with a related text-message campaign.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Elon [Musk] did this,” wroteCarl Schulze, a Wisconsin disability-rights activist and former political candidate, referring to the nearly $190 million Musk poured into Texas’ U.S. Senate race on behalf of Republicans. “It should be illegal to create and distribute garbage like this with the intention of influencing an election.”

The mailers, photos of which began spreading online Monday, prominently feature a transgender pride flag on the envelope and list a return address in Meadows Place, just outside Houston, for a supposed organization called “Texas Transgender Student Union.”

Inside the envelope is a pamphlet, multipleoutlets reported, which includes information on how minors can petition for emancipation or seek medical care out of state.

The issue, as noted by the conservative news website The Daily Signal, was that the address listed on the envelope does not exist, nor does an organization called the “Texas Transgender Student Union.”

Another oddity flagged by the Signal was that the Meadows Place address doesn’t appear to belong to any business, and there is no known organization called the “Texas Transgender Student Union.” Local reports have tied the address to a commercial mailbox rental.

The Concho Observer reported that the mailer was built from TENT’s own materials, and The Daily Signal reported that the guide was later removed from TENT’s website.

The Concho Observer estimated that mailing the pamphlet to every Texas household would cost $3 million to $4.4 million, and TENT told the outlet it doesn’t have the resources for anything like that.

“These are from an anonymous LLC formed in Wyoming last month. Of course it’s an op!” wrote Andrew Perez, an editor for Zeteo and contributing writer for Rolling Stone.

Journalist Christopher Hooks argued that the mailers were “clearly part of a GOP [get-out-the-vote] operation,” and independent journalist Adam Cochran contended that the undisclosed mailers “likely violate election law.”

Rachel Adjogah, an independent researcher and writer, flagged one detail on the envelope that she argued was an immediate red flag.

“Things that real LGBT groups do: send resources to closeted queer kids who might have abusive parents and then put a giant trans flag on the envelope,” Adjogah wrote, sarcastically.