Washington GOP targets Latina Democrats with "incendiary" texts

The big picture: Central Washington's 14th Legislative District, which became more Democratic-leaning after a court-ordered redistricting, features some of the state's most expensive and hard-fought legislative races in Tuesday's elections.

State of play: Republicans, some of whom told Axios they don't approve of the texts, now hold the two state House seats and the state Senate seat in the heavily Hispanic district, which stretches from east Yakima to Pasco.

• In March, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik ordered the district boundaries to be redrawn to give the area's Latino voters "an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice," a change he said made the district "substantially more Democratic."
• Lasnik previously ruled that the earlier district boundaries violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act.

The latest: The text messages from the state Republican Party target Maria Beltran, who is running for state Senate, as well as Ana Ruiz Kennedy and Chelsea Dimas, who are campaigning for the 14th district's two open state House seats. All are Democrats.

• Beltran and Dimas' campaign websites identify them as children of Mexican immigrants, while Kennedy's website describes her as being born and raised in Mexico.

Zoom in: Axios reviewed screenshots of one of the Spanish-language messages and had a Spanish speaker on staff help with translation.

• According to that translation, the message said the three Democratic candidates "support castration (castración química) of children at school without their knowledge or consent."
• "They hate you, they hate your family, they hate God, and they hate the truth," the message adds.
• Washington State Republican Party chair Jim Walsh told Axios Sunday that the text messages had been sent out "in small batches for about a week."

What they're saying: In a post on Instagram, Beltran called the messages "full of blatant lies and fear-mongering" and said they "disrespect my Catholic faith and Mexican heritage."

• Her Republican opponent, state Sen. Curtis King, also denounced the messages, telling Axios, "My team and I would never have sent such a text."
• U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) issued a statement calling the messages "despicable" and an attempt "to scare and trick the very voters the district was drawn to protect."

The other side: Walsh, the state Republican Party chair, accused Democrats of engaging in "phony outrage," telling Axios, "The texts are factual."

• He said the "castration" comment was referring to puberty-blocking drugs such as Lupron.
• Walsh told Axios to check questionnaires he said the candidates filled out to receive the endorsement of Planned Parenthood, which supports access to gender-affirming care.

Reality check: One of the candidates, Kennedy, has not been endorsed by Planned Parenthood's advocacy arm, the group confirmed to Axios, and Kennedy's campaign told Axios she did not fill out the organization's questionnaire.

• Gender-affirming care is backed as medically necessary by leading health groups like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and rarely involves surgery for minors, even for older teens.

Between the lines: Walsh said Democrats are objecting to the text messages because they're worried they won't pick up seats in the 14th district, which "they thought they'd gerrymandered" in their favor.

• But some prominent Republicans are also distancing themselves from the state party's tactics.
• State Senate Republican Leader John Braun told Axios the texting campaign "uses language and characterizations we'd never use," while state Rep. Peter Abbarno, who co-chairs state House Republicans' campaign arm, referred to the language as "incendiary" and "unfortunate."