Texas lawmaker denounces political meanness in debate over doctored campaign images

On any given day that the Legislature is in session, a senator or a representative can be expected to stand up and speak with passion and conviction on a proposal that could have far-reaching implications across the state.

And on any given day, that senator or representative can expect that no minds will be changed on the chamber floor, no matter how sound the argument or how forceful the delivery. In fact, there's a reasonable expectation that most of the members of the House or Senate won't even be paying attention.

Something of a rare exception to all that occurred in the House last week during a floor debate on whether the use of doctored visuals falsely depicting the actions of political candidates should be publicly disclosed in a form along the lines of "I'm candidate so and so, and I approve this message."

"Don't give me any bull crap and tell me that we need to be distorting people's images, lying to people, changing their names, changing their voices, who they voted for," state Rep. Christian Manuel, D-Beaumont, told the Texas House about deep-fake political ads.

The legislation was House Bill 366 by state Rep. Dade Phelan, the Beaumont Republican who this session returned as a rank-and-file member after spending four years as House speaker. The bill has its roots in the 2024 Republican primary during which Phelan won renomination by the narrowest of margins as his opponent sought to link him with Democratic former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and accused him of being a RINO, or "Republican In Name Only".

A meme surfaced during the campaign purporting to show Phelan and Pelosi in a warm embrace. It was actually a mashup of two unrelated images, likely through the use of photo-manipulation software.

During the course of the lengthy debate, several conservative House members essentially accused Phelan of attempting to criminalize satire because the bill would make the failure to disclose such images as being doctored a Class A misdemeanor, which can carry jail time of up to a year.

Phelan batted aside several assertions, saying the measure targets candidates and campaign operatives who would deceive voters with fake images that often look real. And that's where Democratic state Rep. Christian Manuel entered the conversation.

Manuel's Southeast Texas House districts abuts Phelan's, meaning that campaign flyers, broadcast ads and digital ads blurred across the boundaries. In his floor speech, Manuel said the Pelosi-Phelan meme was mild compared with some of the other noise and literature that surfaced during the runoff between the then-speaker and challenger David Covey.

In short, Manuel's message was: It's not the meme, it's the meanness that permeates our politics.

Much of that meanness in last year's primary was rooted in Phelan's decision as speaker to let members of the minority party chair some House committees and be part of the leadership team. Some Republican activists saw that as a betrayal of GOP values.

As a result, Manuel said, Phelan's wife was accosted in her home. Families were threatened, neighbors feared neighbors and a lot of voters were left wondering who or what to believe, Manuel said.

"Speaker Phelan is going to be nice about this, and I'm not," Manuel said. "You all know I love where I'm from, (but) you all don't know the hell that we went through with lies. We signed up for this — 150 people in this darn room — but our mothers, our sisters, our brothers, our wives, our children, they didn't sign up for this."

Manuel, who is in his second term and represents a district that is safely Democratic, said treating politics as a blood sport in which opponents are seen as enemies must end. And as he spoke, there were few visible side conversations on the House floor, and most members remained in their desks and appeared to be facing Manuel.

"Don't give me any bull crap and tell me that we need to be distorting people's images, lying to people, changing their names, changing their voices, who they voted for," he told the House.

"Don't make a mockery of our system and try to make this something that it's not," he said. "This is not about protecting you and our petty egos. This is about protecting our constituents, our families and the people who will come after us."

Phelan's bill passed by a comfortable — and bipartisan —102-40 margin. It was not clear whether Manuel's speech changed any minds, but it did get most members' attention.