Here's how Texas AG is going all in on Latino voter suppression

Under the guise of “voter fraud,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has ramped up his harassment of Democratic Latino candidates, leaders, and even volunteers. His “election integrity unit” carried out a series of raids this week on the homes of people involved with Cecilia Castellano’s campaign for a state House seat.

Paxton’s team alleged in warrants for the raid “that a longtime Frio County political operator had illegally harvested votes for multiple local races in recent years” including Castellano’s 2024 primary, according to the Texas Tribune. 

“Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office claims in a sworn affidavit that the aide, Manuel Medina, a former chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party and chief of staff to state Rep. Liz Campos, D-San Antonio, was recorded discussing a scheme to collect votes for Castellano with the Frio County operator,” the Tribune reports. 

Paxton’s thugs raided the home of Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old retired educator, in San Antonio last week. She is a lifelong volunteer with the civil rights group League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC. Martinez told The New York Times that a little before 6 AM last Tuesday, nine officers—some of whom were armed—knocked on her door and forced their way into her home.

“I got scared,” she told the Times. “They told me, ‘We have a warrant to search your house.’ I said, ‘Why?’ I felt harassed.”