The Texas Public Policy Foundation applauds the Texas State House’s bipartisan approval today of HB2283. The bill was authored by Rep. Phil King along with eight other joint authors and coauthors. After passing the House 89-52 the bill now heads to the Texas Senate which has already approved similar provisions as part of SB7.
HB2283 prohibits outside special interest groups from flooding Texas with millions of dollars to run thinly veiled partisan get-out-the-vote campaigns using government officials as cover. In 2020, these groups spent at least $36 million targeting specific voters in key areas of Texas that either vote strongly for Democrats or were battleground counties Democrats were looking to turn blue. For example, Dallas County received an influx of $15 million despite already having a budget of $10 million for election administration efforts. Other targeted counties included Williamson, Hays, and Fort Bend.
“HB2283 will prevent outside groups coming into Texas and use our election officials for their partisan efforts,” said TPPF Senior Fellow Chad Ennis who testified before the Texas House in support of the bill, “Deep pocketed third-party groups should not be allowed to dictate how elections are funded and administered. That is a power reserved to the state legislature.”