Fact check: Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2018 senatorial campaign mailers complied with FEC standards

The claim: Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2018 campaign tried to trick elderly Texans with suspicious mailers

A three-year-old Facebook post claims Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s senatorial campaign targeted the elderly in a fundraising strategy. Cruz is currently serving his second term in the Senate.

“Ted Cruz’s senatorial campaign is sending fake court summons letters to try and TRICK elderly voters into donating to his campaign,” states the claim posted Sept. 18, 2018, to the Facebook account Not My President. The post recently went viral after the senator was criticized for taking a family trip to Cancun amid an unprecedented snowstorm in Texas.

The meme, which includes a picture of Cruz next to a claimed image of the letter, explains older voters might have thought they were paying a court-imposed fee instead of donating to Cruz’s campaign.

“America, this is what a desperate crook looks like!” the meme states.

USA TODAY reached out to Not my President for comment.

The Facebook group posts antithetical content about members of the Republican Party. A statement on the group’s About page reads “Donald Trump does not represent me! America needs a real president!”

At the 2021 CPAC, Texas Senator Ted Cruz tried to make light of his recent vacation to Mexico while millions dealt with a winter weather disaster.

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Is the letter authentic?

The claim appears to be sourced from a 2018 tweet thread by user Sean Owen. Owen posted a picture of a letter he said was addressed to his grandmother in Austin, Texas, the county seat of Travis County. The address is blacked-out.

“Received this for my 88-year-old grandma. Says it’s a summons from Travis County, but is actually asking for money for @tedcruz,” Owen tweeted. “Did your campaign authorize this? Is this even legal? Shame on you. That’s one more @BetoORourke voter.”

Cruz defeated Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke that year in a close race.

The image in the tweet resembles the letter in the Facebook claim. It is an “Official Travis County Summons” sent by “Ted Cruz for Senate 2018,” according to the return address.

Owen also posted a picture of the envelope’s contents later in the tweet thread. “Some have asked what’s inside. It’s a quite normal campaign fundraising letter, and this form,” he tweeted. A title, “2018 Campaign Summons Form,” is featured prominently at the top of the form.

“Still a ‘Summons’ and asking for a ‘affirmation’ signature, but no mention anymore of Travis County (hmm) and more clearly about campaign donation,” Owen wrote.

The letters were mailed to residents in at least three Texas counties, The New York Times reported in September 2018. The paper also reported that despite appearances, the fundraising strategy did not violate federal election law.

The Federal Election Commission requires disclaimers on solicitations that disclose who paid for the communication. Cruz’s fundraising letters followed this requirement, Myles Martin, a spokesman for the FEC, told the Times.

“The F.E.C.’s regulations don’t speak to how candidates may choose to word particular solicitations to potential contributors,” Martin said, according to the paper.

USA TODAY reached out to the FEC for comment.

Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Cruz, told The Associated Press in 2018 there was only one complaint “not to us but to the local media” out of 50,000 mailers sent to the San Antonio area.

Cruz’s office supplied no further information in a response to a request for comment from USA TODAY.

Our rating: Partly false

We rate this claim PARTLY FALSE, based on our research. A Facebook post correctly attributed fundraising mailers that appeared to resemble court summonses to Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2018 senatorial campaign. However, a statement that the campaign tried to “trick elderly voters” with the letters is false, according to the Federal Election Commission. The letters included an FEC-mandated disclaimer and were acceptable under federal law.

Our fact-check sources:

• USA TODAY, Feb. 19, “Sen. Ted Cruz calls Mexico trip amid Texas winter crisis and power outages ‘a mistake'”
• The New York Times, Sept. 17, 2018, “Ted Cruz’s Campaign Marked a Fund-Raising Letter an Official ‘Summons.’ It Wasn’t Against the Rules.”
• Federal Election Commission, accessed March 10, “Party committee fundraiser for a candidate committee disclaimer example”
• The Texas Tribune, Nov. 6, 2018, “Ted Cruz defeats Beto O’Rourke in difficult re-election fight”
• Associated Press, May 29, 2018, “Ted Cruz fundraising with official looking ‘summons’ mailers”
• Sean R. Owen, Sept. 16, 2018, tweet thread

Contributing: The Associated Press

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