© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Battleground Texas Groups Wary Of Undercover Videographers

With the recently-released video that shows an alleged Battleground Texas volunteer making remarks about Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott's disability, leaders within the group are telling organizers to be on the lookout for undercover members of Project Veritas, the group that released the video, and to not be baited into saying something they will regret.

But Battleground representatives say they will not be going to extremes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Several volunteers with Battleground Texas had reported similar occurrences, where unknown volunteers advocated for committing voter fraud and made comments about Abbott’s disability, only later to have that turn up as footage on an undercover video shot by members of Project Veritas.

"We’ve known for a while that he was going around Texas trying to convince people to do something illegal and going into places and ask people outlandish questions  or trying to entrap people in statements." said Ellis Brachman, a spokesperson for Battleground Texas.

Brachman said they have warned Battleground organizers to keep their eyes out for these types of volunteers.

"We are strong believers in following the letter of the law and we train our people very thoroughly on what that is and how to do it and of course we have warned them there are people out there that want to make them look bad," Brachman said.

"This is a lot more about Republicans than they are about Battleground Texas, if they are desperate enough to use a well-known liar who has been repeated discredited by journalists, legal experts, even his own party to falsely attack us then obviously they are scared about what voters are going to have a real choice at ballot this November," Brachman said.

Brachman said going forward they are not worried about the hundreds of hours of video or undercover agents that Project Veritas has planted in the field and at the moment are just fixed on reaching out to Texas voters. 

He said they are not planning any type of retaliation against Project Veritas other than to just continue to do what they have been doing, saying the attack has only energized their base.

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.