Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, accusing the Republican of using his office for "retaliation" to punish the group for its political work and asking a federal judge to block his investigations and litigation against the organization.
"ActBlue is trying to take me down," Paxton, who is running for Senate in Texas, wrote on X. "I sued the fundraising platform for deceiving Americans by lying about its donation processes that allow fraudulent and foreign donations.
"I will hold those who break the law accountable."
The ActBlue lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Boston, seeks to counter the case Paxton brought last month in Texas state court accusing ActBlue of misleading Congress and the public about its donation practices. ActBlue said Paxton's actions are part of an unlawful retaliation campaign targeting the nation's leading small-dollar Democratic fundraising platform.
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"Ken Paxton has spent more than two years using the power of his office to investigate, harass, and sue ActBlue," Lawrence Oliver, ActBlue's chief legal officer, said in a statement.
"The timing of Paxton fighting for his political life in his run for U.S. Senate and his use of the Attorney General's office to attack ActBlue, should not be lost on anyone. He is wasting taxpayer dollars to benefit his political ambitions.
"That is not law enforcement. It is retaliation against constitutionally protected speech and association, and it is exactly what the First Amendment forbids."
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ActBlue also argues selective prosecution, noting Paxton has never investigated WinRed - the Republican fundraising counterpart to ActBlue - alleging in the lawsuit that "Paxton has a history of targeting Democratic-aligned entities."
"During his tenure as Texas Attorney General, Paxton has signaled an emphasis on enforcement against entities enabling voting and political speech that he perceives as aligned with the Democratic Party," the lawsuit reads. "He has consistently sought to suppress speech with which he disagrees and hobble his political opponents by abusing the powers of his Office."
ActBlue cited a New York Times report that Talarico "had posted strong fundraising numbers for the first quarter of 2026," in potentially being the nexus for Paxton's opening his investigation.
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The timing of his investigation shows a political motive, ActBlue's lawsuit argues. The group says Paxton's investigators began conducting undercover transactions on ActBlue's platform Feb. 18, one day after Talarico announced he had raised $2.5 million in 24 hours, including more than $2.2 million through ActBlue.
The lawsuit said Paxton filed his Texas case five days after national reporting described Talarico as a major fundraising threat who had raised more than $36 million through the platform.
The lawsuit marks an escalation in a broader Republican-backed campaign targeting ActBlue and other online fundraising platforms. President Donald Trump last year directed his Department of Justice to investigate the groups, and Paxton has pursued ActBlue through a series of inquiries dating back to December 2023.
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The issue comes as the Democratic National Committee reportedly carried more than $17.5 million in debt this winter, according to the FEC.
The House Administration, Judiciary and Oversight committees have been investigating ActBlue for more than a year and issued a 2025 report titled "Fraud on ActBlue."
"ActBlue has engaged in good faith at every turn," the group wrote in a statement after sending a letter to the committees last week before filing the Paxton lawsuit.
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"We are asking the Committees to do the same: engage with us directly before sending accusatory public correspondence, and answer unresolved questions about the relationship between their oversight work and a DOJ investigation ordered by a President who has made no secret of his hostility towards ActBlue.
"We see what this is," the statement added. "And we're going to keep showing up, keep correcting the record - because that's what transparency actually looks like. Not as a talking point. As a practice."
Paxton's Texas lawsuit, filed April 20, seeks financial penalties and asks a state court to stop ActBlue from allowing donations through gift cards and prepaid debit cards. Paxton alleged those payment methods could obscure a donor's identity and enable illegal contributions, including from foreign nationals. His suit also claimed ActBlue continued to process gift card donations after saying in 2024 that it would stop doing so.
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ActBlue denied the allegations.
"This is a thinly veiled attempt to distract from Ken Paxton's numerous legal and ethical issues ahead of next month's runoff," ActBlue spokeswoman De'Andra Roberts-LaBoo told Fox News in an April 20 statement via email. "If he and his Republican allies actually cared about donor fraud, they would work to strengthen security standards across the board, including within their own operations, rather than targeting ActBlue.
"Our platform has done more than any other, regardless of party, to prevent improper donations and protect donors. Full stop."
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Investigators from Paxton's office attempted three times to use an American Express gift card on ActBlue's platform, and all three attempts were rejected by the platform's automated fraud-prevention tools, according to the complaint.
ActBlue said Paxton nevertheless filed a lawsuit accusing the group of having "secretly resumed" accepting gift cards and failed to disclose the failed test transactions to the Texas court, calling the allegations "false and inflammatory."
"Paxton's decision to use his government office to target ActBlue with legal sanctions as retribution for its protected speech and political association is an affront to the Constitution and must not be tolerated," ActBlue's lawyers wrote in the federal lawsuit.
Since its founding in 2004, ActBlue said it has helped raise $19 billion for Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations, including more than $568 million in the first quarter of 2026, acting as a conduit for individual donors.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare Paxton's investigation and Texas civil case unconstitutional violations of ActBlue's First and 14th Amendment rights and to bar him from continuing to pursue them.
Reuters contributed to this report.
