Former Rep. Huelskamp hangs up when asked about deceptive Kansas abortion text messages
Former Kansas Congressman Tim Huelskamp abruptly hung up Wednesday when asked to comment on deceptive text messages that went out to voters around the state the day before a pivotal vote on abortion rights.
The anonymous text messages told voters to vote “yes” on an Aug. 2 abortion ballot question to “give women a choice.” A “yes” vote would have removed the right to an abortion from the state constitution.
Huelskamp’s Do Right PAC paid $26,000 to Alliance Forge, a Nevada firm that was linked to the messages in a report by The Washington Post.
On Wednesday afternoon, Huelskamp answered a reporter’s call, but immediately hung up when asked to comment on the texts and his group’s apparent involvement. Huelskamp did not pick up the phone when the reporter attempted to call him back.
A hard-line conservative, Huelskamp represented Kansas’ 1st Congressional District from 2011 to 2017. He lost the 2016 Republican primary to Roger Marshall, who has since risen to the U.S. Senate. .
Huelskamp’s PAC was the only major group campaigning to pass the amendment that reported paying Alliance Forge, according to campaign finance reports filed with Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.
The texts had received national attention and statewide criticism in the final day before the amendment vote. Even former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius had received one.
Twilio, the platform on which messages were sent out, suspended the user behind the texts for violating its disinformation policy, but declined to identify the anonymous sender.
