Texas transgender mailers that baffled voters for weeks now have names attached to them. Court disclosures revealed late Thursday have identified the Republican Women’s Caucus Fund and a man named John Braun as the clients behind a mass text-message campaign that purported to offer resources to transgender students in Texas, in the final days of a tight United States Senate race.
The revelation, first reported by the Texas Observer, is the biggest breakthrough yet in a mystery that began when unsolicited texts started arriving on Texans’ phones on October 12, followed days later by millions of mailed pamphlets. The real advocacy group whose website the messages linked to, the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), has insisted from the start that it sent none of them.
The trail led through a Travis County courtroom. After TENT filed a pre-suit discovery petition on October 22 in the 345th District Court, District Judge Jan Soifer ruled from the bench late Tuesday that a representative of the Texas Transgender Student Union (TTSU) must sit for a deposition over Zoom on Friday, October 30, and denied the group’s motion to dismiss the case. Soifer also ordered Infobip, the mass text-messaging company that transmitted the texts on a client’s behalf, to answer written questions.
Infobip provided those written answers in a court document signed on Wednesday, with the name of its client redacted. On Thursday, a TENT spokesperson told the Texas Observer that the judge had approved a motion to reveal the names: Infobip’s clients are the Republican Women’s Caucus (RWC) Fund and someone named John Braun. The Observer published the revelation on Thursday evening, updating its story early Friday.
That disclosure does not, by itself, settle every question. The filings identify the clients of the messaging company, and the mailers were sent under the TTSU name, but the full chain of who funded, directed and designed each piece of the campaign is still being litigated. What changed on Thursday is that the senders can no longer hide behind anonymity in court filings: two names are now on the record, and both have responded.
The campaign unfolded in two waves. First came the texts, starting October 12, advertising guides on “bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school” and offering to answer questions about gender-affirming care in Texas. They linked to TENT’s website but did not identify a sender. Then, from October 17, came the mailers: a “Texas Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide” addressed to “students” at homes across Texas, directing readers to TENT and naming several LGBTQ+ organisations. TENT’s attorney estimated between 3.6 and 4.2 million mailers were sent; other reports put the figure at about three million.
TENT says it had nothing to do with either wave. The organisation sent a cease-and-desist letter, then went to court, arguing that the communications amounted to illegally impersonating the nonprofit and that they had led to harassment and threats against its staff. In court, the address listed on the mailers turned out to be one digit removed from TENT’s correct post office box address, a difference the senders’ lawyer attributed to a typo.
The mailers were sent under the name Texas Transgender Student Union, a limited liability company registered in Wyoming in September. Its lawyer is Chris Hilton, a former lawyer in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office who also defended Paxton during his impeachment proceedings. Hilton has argued that forcing his clients’ identities into the open before the election is politically motivated and would cause harm. “They seek to inflict some of the same harms that they claim to be suffering,” Hilton said in court. “They seek to engage in electioneering.”
Separately, a West Texas district attorney, Sarah Stogner, opened a criminal investigation into the mailers, saying they were apparent forgeries intended to influence voters. TTSU has said through its attorney that the entity “is not going to engage in any further text or mail communications.”
The filings draw a sharp line between what is now documented and what remains disputed. Documented: Infobip’s clients, as revealed under the judge-approved motion, are the RWC Fund and John Braun. Documented, too, is the RWC Fund’s background. It was founded on March 14, 2025, by Kat Cammack, a Republican member of Congress from Florida, and it has reported only a little more than $168,000 in contributions through October 14, according to Federal Election Commission filings cited by the Observer.
Disputed: whether the RWC Fund actually had anything to do with the campaign. The Fund’s denial was categorical. “The Republican Women’s Caucus Fund (RWCF) has had absolutely no involvement in the text messaging or direct mail activities at issue in Texas. We did not authorize, fund, direct, coordinate, or participate in these activities in any capacity,” a spokesperson told the Observer. “RWCF has been wrongfully named in this lawsuit. We categorically reject these false allegations and are pursuing all available legal remedies to protect our organization and hold those responsible accountable.”
Also unresolved is which John Braun the filings name. The Observer noted that a man named John Braun is currently a Washington state senator running for that state’s 3rd Congressional district seat, and that his congressional campaign lists Paul Kilgore as its treasurer. Kilgore is also the treasurer for the RWC Fund and for two political action committees, the Senate Conservatives Fund and its super PAC Senate Conservatives Action, which have collectively spent nearly $140,000 to support Paxton’s campaign. But Braun’s campaign rejected any connection. In response to an email from the Observer, campaign manager Max Lavey said: “Must be a different John Braun. We have no idea what any of this is and have nothing to do with Texas politics.” Paxton’s campaign has denied involvement in the messages and mailers.
The Observer also noted that the RWC Fund has previously sent political emails under the sender name “DOGE Team,” a reference to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, and that the Fund reports no contributions from Musk, who is currently Paxton’s largest financial backer and has repeatedly attacked Talarico on transgender rights.
The RWC Fund’s statement was the fullest denial on the record: “We did not authorize, fund, direct, coordinate, or participate in these activities in any capacity.” The Fund added that it was “wrongfully named” and is “pursuing all available legal remedies.”
Braun’s congressional campaign was equally blunt: “Must be a different John Braun. We have no idea what any of this is and have nothing to do with Texas politics.”
On the other side of the case, TENT’s position has been consistent since the first texts appeared: it did not send them, it did not authorise them, and the impersonation exposed its staff to threats. Its lawyers have argued that the campaign was targeted to maximise reputational damage, arriving just as early voting began on October 19.
Hilton, representing TTSU and Infobip’s client, has framed the unmasking effort itself as the political act, telling the court that those seeking the names “seek to engage in electioneering.” The judge disagreed, ordering the deposition to go ahead and the names to be revealed.
The timing is what gives this revelation its force. Early voting in Texas ends October 30, and voters choose between Paxton and Talarico on November 3 in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. A mystery campaign that touched millions of households, built around one of the race’s most combustible issues, now has names attached days before ballots are counted. Whether those names ultimately prove to be the campaign’s authors, its funders, or merely names that appear in a messaging company’s paperwork will matter enormously, and the distinction is exactly what the remaining court proceedings and the scheduled deposition are meant to test.
The case also tests the limits of anonymous political speech. Texas law protects anonymous speech in many circumstances, and Hilton has leaned on that protection. But courts can order disclosure when a plaintiff credibly alleges impersonation and forgery, and a separate criminal inquiry is already under way. The outcome could shape how aggressively similar mystery campaigns can operate in future elections, and how quickly advocacy groups that say they have been impersonated can force answers.
For TENT, the stakes are more immediate. The group says the campaign hijacked its name, its website, its event photographs and its merchandise images, then left it to deal with the backlash. The revelation at least shifts the public argument from who sent the messages to whether the named parties did so, a narrower and more answerable question.
The TTSU representative’s deposition is scheduled for Friday, October 30, over Zoom, though TTSU has said it will appeal Soifer’s ruling to the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals. Any testimony could clarify who paid for the texts and mailers, who wrote them, and how the mailing lists were built. Infobip’s written answers, now partly unredacted by the judge’s order, may also be tested in further filings.
The criminal investigation in West Texas continues in parallel, and TENT’s underlying impersonation claims remain before the Travis County court. With the election four days away, expect both campaigns to be asked about the revelation on the trail: Paxton’s campaign has already denied involvement, and Talarico’s campaign has made the mailers a talking point about dirty tricks in the race’s final stretch.
One caution applies to everything that follows. The court record now names the RWC Fund and John Braun as Infobip’s clients, and both deny involvement. Until testimony, documents or a court finding connect those names to the design, funding or direction of the campaign, the careful version of this story is the one the filings support: the senders’ names are out, the denials are on the record, and the proof of who did what is still being fought over in court.
Court filings revealed late Thursday identify Infobip’s clients as the Republican Women’s Caucus Fund and a man named John Braun. The RWC Fund denies any involvement, and the campaign of Washington State Senator John Braun says it must be a different person of that name.
Texts from October 12 and mailers from October 17 purported to offer resources for transgender, nonbinary and questioning students, linking to the website of the Transgender Education Network of Texas. TENT says it sent none of them.
TENT’s attorney estimated between 3.6 and 4.2 million mailers; other reports put the figure at about three million. The mailers were sent under the name Texas Transgender Student Union, a Wyoming-registered company.
A representative of the Texas Transgender Student Union was ordered to sit for a deposition over Zoom on Friday, October 30. The group is appealing the judge’s ruling, and a separate criminal investigation into the mailers as apparent forgeries is under way in West Texas.
The revelation lands days before the November 3 election between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico, with early voting ending October 30. Paxton’s campaign has denied involvement in the messages and mailers.
Related coverage on US News Pulse: Texas mystery mailers ruling: judge orders senders to testify under oath, Trump Daytona Beach rally tonight, final in-person stop before midterms, and Trump Texas rallies, Paxton methane plan and a Talarico surge on October 27.
Sources: Texas Observer, October 29-30, 2026; KUT News via KTTZ, October 29, 2026; SA Current, October 29, 2026; Texas Tribune reporting on the Travis County proceedings.
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