Over the weekend, Texas voters reported receiving a text sounding the alarm that furries are turning out to skew the state’s midterm election.
The text, which four people independently told the Current they had received, was distributed Saturday, accompanied by a photo of a man allegedly walking away from a Collin County polling place while wearing a fox tail accessory.
The text claimed that furries — a term for people who sometimes adopt personas of anthropomorphized animal characters — and “other weirdos” are turning out in “record numbers” to vote early and are a “big reason why Democrats hold an 86,000 vote lead on Republicans statewide.”
“Don’t let weirdo furry Socialists pick our leaders!” the text read, encouraging recipients to vote for “every Republican on your ballot today to keep common sense conservatives in control of Texas.”
The text states that it was sent out by Texans for Common Sense, a political action committee 100% funded by Texans United for a Conservative Majority PAC, a far-right group backed by West Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn.
Dunn, co-founder of Midland-based CrownQuest Operating, is one of the main financial backers of the increasingly far-right Texas GOP. Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico frequently mentions the deep-pocketed oilman on the campaign trail as he decries billionaires’ meddling in Texas politics.
There’s no proof that the unknown man in the texted photo was walking away from a polling place during early voting or that he’s a furry.
People wear fox tails for a variety of reasons, including as an alternative fashion statement. In addition to potentially signaling membership in the furry community, the accessories are popular among cosplay and anime enthusiasts, e-girls, Renaissance faire-goers and members of other niche subcultures.
But even if the man is a furry, who cares?
There’s no indication that furries share any political ideology, nor is there any estimate of how many Texans are part of the subculture.
The state’s largest annual furry convention, Texas Furry Fiesta, draws an attendance of 8,000. Even that gathering, a major celebration of furry culture that also draws people from other states and countries, represents a tiny fraction of Texas’ 31.7 million residents.
Or could the furry voting bloc be the literal dark horse this election cycle?
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