Mailers that appeared in Texas mailboxes as early voting began have been linked to an Illinois printing company through postal records. The materials presented themselves as coming from a group called the Texas Transgender Student Union and were described as a resource guide for LGBTQ+ students as young as kindergarten, CBS News Texas reported.
The organization listed on the return address appears to have no website, social media presence, or other online footprint. Investigators traced the name to a recently formed Wyoming limited liability company. Critics have said the flyers appeared intended to provoke outrage directed at the transgender community.
The flyers directed recipients toward resources associated with the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, without the organization’s permission. TENT has said it is pursuing legal action to identify those responsible and has denied supporting the content of the materials.
Postal records connect mailing to Illinois firm and political donors
U.S. Postal Service records show that Three Z Printing holds the bulk-mail permit used to distribute the flyers to more than one million Texas addresses, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The company is owned by Bill Zerrusen, and his son Matthew Zerrusen lives in Flower Mound, near Dallas.
Federal Election Commission records show the family has donated more than $700,000 to Trump-aligned organizations and Republican committees over the years. Those contributions include $125,000 from Bill Zerrusen to the Trump 47 Committee in 2024 and $70,000 from Matthew Zerrusen to the same organization. The mailers also landed at a tense moment for Texas Republicans, as Trump has publicly scolded the party while Ken Paxton sags in Texas polls.
There is no public evidence establishing that the family personally authorized or financed the mailers. Three Z Printing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mass mail executives who spoke on condition of anonymity said the operation appeared to be very large and potentially involved a mail house located out of state. All of them denied that their own companies were involved.
One particularly controversial passage in the flyers encouraged young recipients to consider emancipating themselves from their parents and contacting a “safe” adult. TENT has denied supporting that message.
In a petition filed in Travis County, TENT alleged that the unidentified party “co-opted TENT’s name, materials (including photographs), branding and website without TENT’s knowledge or consent, violating state law.”
The lawsuit states, “The damage to TENT has been immediate and severe, threatening the safety of TENT’s leadership and the very existence of its organization.” It adds, “TENT has met an onslaught of hate and violent threats through its social media and email channels, and that volume has only grown since the Mailer began arriving in voters’ homes shortly after the messages hit voters’ phones.”
The organization also named a Croatian IT company called Infobip in its lawsuit. The petition claims Infobip sent texts to Texans on behalf of a client but refused to name who that client was. TENT is asking the court for a temporary restraining order against Infobip and Texas Transgender Student Union LLC.
A separate investigation identified a Maryland-based tracking company, SnailWorks, through postal barcodes. SnailWorks stated, “Snailworks is an administrative mail tracking company. Our name has only been connected to these mailings because we provide mail tracking services as mail moves through the U.S. Postal Service, using scan data supplied by USPS. We do not design, write, print, prepare, or send mail, we have no role in or visibility of its content, and we do not create, sell, or rent mailing lists.”
The indicia on the mailers listed the permit holder simply as INO. One mass mail executive said the USPS requires permit holders to disclose the owner of the mail, meaning the Postal Service knows who is behind the permit and who they are mailing for.
Numbers printed above the addresses indicated the scale of the mailing. One mailer showed the number 213687, and another delivered to Fort Worth showed 1007536, suggesting the batch included more than one million addresses.
Both Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton’s campaign and Democratic opponent James Talarico’s campaign have reportedly denied involvement with the mailers. The denial comes as Talarico faces scrutiny over his week off the campaign trail, which he has since addressed.
Published: Oct 28, 2026 12:15 pm