Souls to the Polls seeks probe of GOP
Wis. group says officials sought to disrupt voters
“We’re asking for an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice because we need to know if those responsible for this attempt at voter suppression broke any laws.”
Greg Lewis
Executive director of Souls to the Polls Wisconsin
A nonprofit law firm representing Souls to the Polls on Wednesday asked federal officials to investigate Republican campaign operatives for sending text messages urging supporters of then-President Donald Trump to flood the Milwaukee voting rights group with requests to be taken to the polls on Election Day 2020.
The request comes two weeks after the Journal Sentinel reported on the text messages from new GOP Executive Director Andrew Iverson when he was Wisconsin head of Trump Victory, a joint operation of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee in 2020.
Iverson sent texts to “wreak havoc” with Souls to the Polls to Carlton Huffman, then Trump Victory’s state strategic initiative director, who then instructed another Trump aide to carry out the directive.
“In this country, the right to vote is sacrosanct,” wrote Chris Donohue, staff counsel for Law Forward, a nonprofit law firm representing Souls to the Polls. “If Iverson, Huffman and others followed through with the plans they made, as publicly reported, they may have violated numerous core federal civil rights laws, as well as Wisconsin law.”
Donohue said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee had confirmed that it received her group’s request for a federal investigation.
Iverson has said his texts were not meant to be taken seriously.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Greg Lewis, executive director of Souls to the Polls Wisconsin, suggested that Trump campaign officials may have engaged in voter suppression and racism with their plans to swamp the Black get-out-the-vote organization with calls on Nov. 3, 2020.
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.
“We’re asking for an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice because we need to know if those responsible for this attempt at voter suppression broke any laws,” said Lewis, who was joined by nearly two dozen supporters. “Did they violate the Voting Rights Act? Did they violate the Civil Rights Act? We demand and deserve answers.”
U.S. Attorney Greg Haanstad did not immediately return a request for comment.
Last month, the Journal Sentinel reported that on the day of the 2020 presidential election, Iverson – who was recently named executive director of the state GOP – sent two text messages to Huffman about Souls to the Polls.
“Can Mario (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?”
Huffman then urged Herrera to follow through with the plan, which Huffman said was dubbed “Operation Rat (Expletive).”
“Know some people who wanna (expletive) with the Dems,” Huffman texted Herrera later on Nov. 3, 2020. “Have our people spam their souls to the polls hotline. … Just say they want a ride and be wearing their trump stuff.”
Huffman said he made the text messages public because he believes people should know that Iverson engaged in dirty tricks aimed at suppressing the Black vote in Milwaukee in 2020.
In a statement, Iverson has said the text messages were jokes and weren’t supposed to be taken seriously.
Iverson said he got into politics to make sure “that every single Wisconsite (sic) that is legally allowed to vote has the opportunity to do so” – not to suppress the vote anywhere.
“In 2020, I jokingly offered a scenario of Trump supporters utilizing a Democrat-aligned GOTV effort to ensure Republicans also made it out to the polls,” Iverson said in a statement. “It was a spur of the moment thought and nothing more came of it.”
Huffman said he never took the texts as jokes. He said Iverson clearly was trying to overwhelm and discourage Souls to the Polls, which has strong ties to Democrats, by forcing the group to spend valuable resources responding to Trump supporters.
Trump ended up losing Wisconsin to Democrat Joe Biden by nearly 21,000 votes in 2020.
Since 2020, Huffman has had a tumultuous political career. He has been blackballed from the GOP. He is bound by a four-year restraining order for sending a threatening and racist message to a state party official. He was fired from his job with the North Carolina Legislature after his old white supremacist views came to light. He was also accused last year of sexual battery.
In January 2023, Huffman sued Matt Schlapp, accusing the head of the American Conservative Union of grabbing his genital area when the two men were alone in a car after a Georgia campaign event. The case was settled for $480,000 earlier this year.
Last month, a spokesman for the state Republican Party has suggested that Iverson did nothing wrong.
“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.