Latino Voting Group Sues Texas AG Paxton Over Voter Retaliation, Intimidation Efforts

A pro-voting group sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) Tuesday, accusing him of launching a retaliation campaign meant to intimidate and suppress Latino voters.

Jolt Initiative, a Texas nonprofit that works to increase Latino youth voter participation, alleges Paxton’s latest move — attempting to dissolve the organization entirely — threatens to deter one of Texas’ fastest-growing communities from voting.

The pro-voting lawsuit comes after Paxton filed a quo warranto action in state court seeking to revoke Jolt’s charter — a step the group calls the “corporate death penalty” because it would eliminate the organization altogether.

Jolt argues Paxton escalated to this extreme only after the nonprofit successfully blocked his earlier effort to force them to hand over internal documents, volunteer information and voter registration materials.

“If Defendant succeeds in revoking Jolt’s charter, Jolt will no longer be able to operate, extinguishing its efforts to promote civic engagement in the state of Texas,” the complaint reads. “A person of ordinary firmness would be discouraged from promoting voter registration and civic engagement under these circumstances.”

Jolt asserts the dissolution effort is part of a retaliation campaign spurred by their work registering Latino voters — and their decision to stand up to Paxton in court last year.

“Defendant’s ongoing campaign against Jolt is in retaliation for the group’s voter-registration activity—expression and association that is protected by the First Amendment,” the complaint adds. “Defendant forthrightly admits that he initiated the quo warranto proceeding ‘instead’ of defending the legality of his RTE in the previous litigation.”

The nonprofit also says Paxton’s rhetoric has fueled harassment, pointing to his recent press release smearing the group.

“The inflammatory and false statements in Defendant’s press release stoked further harassment of Jolt by third parties,” the plaintiffs emphasize. “No one wants to be the next person the Attorney General attacks with a frivolous threat of prosecution or unjustified law enforcement raid.”

Jolt leaders insist Paxton is weaponizing the power of his office against young Latino voters who are reshaping Texas’ electorate.

“Let the record show that the Texas Attorney General is using the power of his office to silence Latino voters,” Jackie Bastard⁩, executive director of Jolt Initiative, said. “After we challenged his first unconstitutional attempt to intimidate us, he escalated his attack by moving straight to the corporate ‘death penalty,’ seeking to revoke our ability to exist. The state’s quo warranto petition is explicitly retaliatory, citing our voter registration activity and prior lawsuit as a reason for its filing.”

Paxton has spent years targeting Latino-majority communities with voter fraud investigations that rarely lead to convictions. He backed an extreme 2021 anti-voting law that made it harder for elderly and Spanish-speaking voters to get help casting ballots. He has also sued Latino counties over voter registration outreach, executed armed raids on Latino community volunteers and activists and — just this year — prosecuted Latino officials in Frio County for helping elderly residents navigate Texas’ increasingly complex mail-ballot rules.

Voting rights groups say these efforts follow a clear throughline of using the machinery of the state to intimidate the very communities whose political power is rising the fastest.

“This campaign is not about election integrity; it is an act of political intimidation intended to suppress the vote of young Latinos in Texas,” Maria Tolentino, director of programs at Jolt Initiative, said. “We refuse to be bullied. We are asking the federal court to intervene immediately to protect our First Amendment right to speak, associate and petition the government, and to ensure we can continue our vital work of civic engagement.”

The stakes for Texas elections are immediate and far-reaching.

If a state attorney general can dissolve a voting rights group for challenging him — or for helping certain communities register to vote — it could reshape the landscape for every organization working to expand participation.

The outcome of this case could shape the future of voting rights and fair representation in Texas — and determine whether Latino voters can continue building the political power that state GOP leaders are increasingly determined to suppress.