GOP voter registration group shutters amid coronavirus challenges
Engage Texas, the massive Republican super PAC focused on voter registration, is shutting down, citing challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic.
The political action committe began last year with the support of some of the biggest Texas GOP donors and raised $12.7 million while building a staff in the hundreds. Yet the group says that the monthslong pandemic has made clear that "person-to-person contact voter registration is going to be challenging for an indeterminate amount of time."
"Leadership has determined that the highest and best use of supporter and donor energies at this point is to phase out person-to-person voter registration, close Engage Texas and encourage our supporters to engage with candidate and party activities ahead of the November election," Engage Texas said in a statement to The Texas Tribune on Friday. "Engage Texas is proud of our highly successful voter registration efforts and believes that conservative voter registration will successfully continue through the Republican Party of Texas Volunteer Engagement Project."
Engage Texas, which had $6 million cash on hand at the end of March, is in the process of redistributing its remaining funds to other GOP groups with similar goals. The reallocations are expected to be detailed on its next quarterly report to the Federal Election Commission, which is due July 15.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/05/29/texas-republican-voter-registration-group-folds-coronavirus/