Souls to the Polls on Thursday called for the removal of the Republican Party of Wisconsin's new executive director over Election Day 2020 text messages in which he asked about getting supporters of then-President Donald Trump to flood the Milwaukee voting rights group with requests to be taken to the polls.
The group's call came after the Journal Sentinel reported on the text messages from new GOP executive director Andrew Iverson when he was Wisconsin head ofTrump Victory, a joint operation of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee in 2020.
"Today's news is the latest in the pattern of voter suppression and racism," Souls to the Polls Wisconsin Executive Director Greg Lewis said at a press conference Thursday outside a new early voting site on Milwaukee's north side.
He and representatives of other groups said the text messages showed an attempt to interfere with legitimate efforts to help Black and brown people vote and are part of a larger context that includes email communication from an appointed member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission praising GOP campaign efforts that he said discouraged Black voter turnout in Milwaukee.
The speakers called for the state and federal departments of justice to investigate what they called in a statement "a potential conspiracy to suppress Black voters" in the text message exchange.
Souls to the Polls volunteers offer free rides to the polls on Election Day and during early voting. Lewis said the organization will take people to the polls no matter their partisan affiliation.
On the day of the 2020 presidential election, Iverson sent two text messages to Carlton Huffman, then Trump Victory's state strategic initiative director.
"CanMario(Herrera, head of Hispanic outreach for Trump Victory) help get some Trump supporters to participate in Souls to the Polls?" Iverson told Huffman at 9:45 a.m. on Nov. 3, 2020. "'Can't wait to go vote for President Trump!' Wesring (sic) MAGA hat or something."
"I'm excited about this. Wreak havoc," Iverson then told Huffman. "For the afternoon and they'll make it clear they're excited to vote for Trump?"
In a statement, Iverson said this week thatthe text messages were jokesand weren't supposed to be taken seriously.
Huffman, however, told the Journal Sentinel he did not take it as a joke and contended Iverson was clearly trying to overwhelm and discourageSouls to the Polls by forcing the group to spend valuable resources taking Trump supporters to various Milwaukee polling locations, where they may or may not have voted. Souls to the Polls is focused on increasing turnout among Black voters, who make up an important voting bloc for Democrats.
He said Iverson called him twice to check on the status of the effort called"Operation Rat (Expletive)."
Huffman, who was fired from his North Carolina job afterhis old white supremacist viewscame to light, said the effort could have suppressed the Black vote in the state. He is now an anti-Trump independent.
However, text messages between Huffman and Herrera on Election Day 2020show Huffman appeared to be complicit in the effort to inundate the organization.
A spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin pointed the finger at Huffman.
“The real story here is Carlton Huffman, a known white supremacist, was caught lying to the press by spreading falsehoods about former colleagues," said Matt Fisher, communications director for the party. "Andrew Iverson is a man of integrity who is committed to electing Republicans by earning the trust and votes of Wisconsinites.”
But speakers slammed Iverson for the text messages and for his contention that he was jokingly offering the scenario. Some people gathered behind them held signs with the image of a rat crossed out and the words "'NO' to GOP Voter Suppression!" — a reference to the name of the "operation."
"This blatant tactic to 'wreak havoc' not only undermines democracy but it also directly targets minority communities and perpetuates our cycle of voter suppression," said Samuel Liebert, Wisconsin state director of All Voting is Local.
He said such an effort would have taken away a vital resource from voters who need help getting to their voting locations. The news of the text messages underscored the need for the groups to safeguard the election process and defend the rights of marginalized communities, he said.
Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities, known as BLOC, criticized Iverson's argument that he was joking.
"If communities of color said this is a harm and a painful part of my ancestral history, again, politics aside, why would you joke about something like that?" Lang asked. "And then, obviously, you add in the politics, you add in the other dynamics, the current political climate that we're in — all of that, it's disgusting to hear that he thought it was a joke, and I felt like it was a poor excuse at him trying to walk it back a little bit."
Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on X at@DanielBiceor on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.
