Thelma Louise, a Black conservative influencer who has spent two years campaigning for Republicans, says she was escorted out of a rally for Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, and was never told why — an experience she described as “beyond disrespectful” and one that has set off debate over how campaigns treat their grassroots supporters.
The influencer, who goes by Thelma Louise and has more than 200,000 TikTok followers, recounted the October 18 incident in a series of videos. She said she had driven more than two hours to attend Paxton’s “Come and Take It” campaign tour stop at the Crown Ridge Banquet Hall in San Antonio, filming protesters outside the venue and recording a speaker inside when security personnel approached her, according to reporting by Atlanta Black Star and Baller Alert, which drew on her posts.
Louise said Paxton’s campaign manager told her she wanted her removed, and that she tried without success to reach another campaign representative.
In footage she shared, she can be heard asking, “And there’s no one that I can talk to about this?” An unidentified person replies, “I’m sorry, no, ma’am.” In a follow-up video, she grew emotional. “This, I will never forget. Never. This was beyond disrespectful,” she said. “And yes, it did make me cry.”
Louise stressed that her support for the party had not been casual.
She said she had volunteered for President Donald Trump’s campaign as a “Trump Force” captain, had attended Republican events with press credentials, and had seen Paxton before at the Texas Youth Summit and at a Republican convention in Dallas, where she said she had access to the media area. She left the Democratic Party two years ago, she said, and committed to the switch fully: “Once I made that choice, I put everything in. I worked my butt off.”
She said she had done nothing to warrant being removed and did not know whether staff had mistaken her for someone else. “There’s no excuse for treating me that way because I didn’t do anything,” she said. Louise was careful to separate the campaign from the party, saying her experience with other Republicans had been welcoming and that she still intended to vote Republican. “Ken Paxton’s campaign manager, that person is 100% responsible for the disrespect that I received this evening,” she said. She later posted a screenshot of what she said was a hostile email she received afterward, accusing her of working against her own community, and said it would not change her politics.
No verified explanation for Louise’s removal has emerged in the available accounts, and there is no confirmed evidence that her race played a role; the reason remains unclear. Paxton’s campaign had not responded to requests for comment as of the reporting cited by Baller Alert.
As the episode spread on social media, some users asserted that Louise is Haitian or of Haitian descent. CTN could not verify that claim. There is no public record establishing her national origin, and her own posts about the incident center on her politics rather than her background; CTN is noting the assertion only because it has circulated widely, not because it has been confirmed.
Paxton, the Texas attorney general, is the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas in the November election.
His record as attorney general has drawn sustained criticism from civil-rights and immigrant-advocacy groups, which his office has defended as enforcement of election, constitutional, and immigration law. In August 2024, investigators working under Paxton executed search warrants involving Latino political activists and Democratic campaign workers in South Texas, some of them tied to the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC); his office called the searches part of an election-fraud investigation, while LULAC accused authorities of intimidating Latino voters. The existence of an investigation does not, by itself, establish that anyone searched committed wrongdoing. Paxton has also challenged diversity, equity and inclusion programs and backed legal efforts against policies benefiting undocumented immigrants, including in-state college tuition for some students — positions his supporters frame as conservative principle and equal treatment under the law.
For Louise, though, the grievance is personal rather than ideological. She says she traveled across the state to support a candidate whose movement she has worked to promote, and was walked out without an answer. The incident has drawn attention to a recurring tension for Black conservatives who publicly back a movement while facing criticism from opponents and, at times, from within their own political circles — and it leaves a question hanging over the campaign: what happens when a committed supporter feels rejected by the very candidate she came to help.
Sources: Atlanta Black Star
https://www.newsbreak.com/share/4956387467333-this-was-beyond-disrespectful-black-maga-influencer-thelma-louise-gets-emotional-while-recounting-how-ken-paxton-s-campaign-had-her-escorted-out-of-rally?_f=app_share&pd=0KTbTf1n&lang=en_US&send_time=1792560258&trans_data=%7B%22platform%22%3A0%2C%22cv%22%3A%2226.42.1.1%22%2C%22languages%22%3A%22en%22%7D&sep=sc_d2d_recall_boost_exp4-control%2Csc_share_26q4-v6&s=i6
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