ActBlue, the principal small-dollar fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and progressive causes, filed a federal lawsuit in Boston on May 1 seeking to stop Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from pursuing what it calls a retaliatory campaign against the group for its political work.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, asks a federal judge to declare Paxton’s ongoing investigation and his April 20 Texas state court case against ActBlue unconstitutional violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and to block him from continuing to pursue them.
ActBlue alleges Paxton, a Republican who faces a May 26 GOP Senate primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn, escalated his more-than-two-year investigation of the platform in direct response to fundraising surges by his potential general election opponent, Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico.
According to the complaint, Paxton’s investigators began undercover transactions on ActBlue’s platform on Feb. 19, one day after Talarico announced raising $2.5 million in a single 24-hour period, more than $2.2 million of which was processed through ActBlue.
“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 a U.S. Senate seat 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 political speech and association, and it is exactly what the First Amendment forbids.”
Paxton, responded in a post on X on the day the suit was filed, saying ActBlue was “trying to take [him] down.”
“I sued the fundraising platform for deceiving Americans by lying about its donation processes that allow fraudulent and foreign donations,” Paxton wrote. “I will hold those who break the law accountable.”
ActBlue noted in the suit that it has raised nearly $19 billion for Democratic candidates and progressive causes since 2004 and said in a press release it has processed more than $568 million in the first quarter of 2026.
The Original Suit
Paxton’s April 20 Texas suit, filed in Tarrant County District Court, accuses ActBlue of misleading consumers about its donation safeguards under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. In announcing the suit, Paxton said “ActBlue lied to Congress and to the American people” and “must pay for its illegal conduct.”
The Texas case alleges ActBlue “secretly resumed” accepting gift card donations after telling Congress it had stopped, citing three successful investigator donations in February, including a $10 donation to a Texas Railroad Commissioner candidate paid for with a digital gift card.
ActBlue’s federal complaint says that on the same Feb. 25 date, three other attempts to donate $10 to the same candidate using an American Express gift card—made under varying name and email combinations—were automatically rejected by ActBlue’s anti-fraud system. ActBlue alleges those rejections were not disclosed in the Texas filing.
ActBlue’s complaint also argues Paxton’s enforcement is selective, noting he has not opened an investigation into WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart, claiming President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign had a higher refund rate than former President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
The complaint adds that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has sent three inquiries to Paxton’s own Senate campaign in less than a year about apparently illegal contributions.
In responses filed with the FEC, Paxton’s campaign treasurer, John Plishka, said each flagged contribution had been addressed through “refunds, redesignations, or reattributions” within the 60-day window required by federal regulations, and that LLC contributions were verified as permissible partnership funds.
The Epoch Times did not receive a response from Paxton’s office to a request for comment on the claims prior to publication.
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