WATCH: Texas AG Candidate Nathan Johnson Lays Out How Trump and Republicans Are Coming After Texas Voters

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Try And Stop Us convened a press call with Texas State Senator and Attorney General candidate Nathan Johnson, State Senator Jose Menendez, and Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Michael Sozan on how Trump and Republicans are coming after Texas voters ahead of November.

When Trump’s Justice Department demanded voters’ personal data, Texas Republicans handed over records on more than 18 million voters, including partial Social Security numbers. The state then ran its rolls through Trump’s error-prone SAVE database, which wrongly flagged 578 U.S. citizens as possible noncitizens.

“Take something like Tarrant County lopping off a third of its polling locations a couple of months before the election. What possible justification could there be for that, other than they’re losing votes in what have historically been Republican strongholds,” said State Senator and Attorney General candidate Nathan Johnson. “I’m optimistic that the efforts to block the will of the people are going to fail. People are very determined to get out and sure make sure that their voices are heard. And it comes at a time in Texas when we desperately need voices to be heard and a change of leadership because we’ve been steered in the wrong direction for a long time.”

“There’s a lot of ways that we could make it easier for people to vote, and we’ve asked them time and time again, ‘What are you afraid of? Why don’t you want people to vote?,’” said State Senator Jose Menendez. “It just seems that they really are most concerned with young people and people of color voting. That’s their issue. They want people to just give up on the system. That’s what they’re hoping. We need to get more people involved.”

“We know that President Trump and his administration are terrified of losing the upcoming election. They and bad actors are actively attempting to sow confusion and fear and doubt about the election system,” said Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Michael Sozan. “Texas voters must not give in to fear or intimidation, or let anyone silence their voice. Texas voters decide who gets elected and what the future of our nation will look like, and Texas voters get to decide how to hold their elected leaders accountable.”

A recording of the press call is available here. Try And Stop Us’ Texas fact sheet is available here.