REPORT: Harris campaign text targeting college students in key swing state triggers state Senate investigation

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From the New York Post: A Harris campaign text message targeting college students at Arizona’s public universities triggered data-privacy concerns and a state Senate investigation over the weekend.

On Sunday, students and others with ties to Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University received text messages notifying them of the voter-registration deadline, which is Monday.

“As an Arizona State University student, you can register and vote in Arizona. Register to vote at your on or off campus housing address today,” one version of the text said.

It is legal in Arizona for college students to register to vote from their dorm address, as long as they’re not registered to vote elsewhere, even if they are technically out-of-state students.

All three public universities told The Post student-directory data can be released through the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, but students can opt to have their information “withheld.”

An ASU spokesperson said in an email statement, “The contact information of enrolled students (including their cell phone numbers) is a matter of public record. This is not ASU policy. Under FERPA, it is considered “directory information,” along with other basic information like the student’s major, dates of attendance and enrollment status. It is common for entities that want to advertise to ASU students to request this publicly available contact information — everything from apartment complexes, to credit cards, to political candidates.”

NAU Associate Vice President for Communications Kimberly Ott also brushed it off, saying, “We receive these types of requests many times throughout the year and the requestor must pay for data they ask for.”

And a University of Arizona spokesperson said, “Organizations can request directory information through the University of Arizona Office of Public Records. Under federal law, directory information is not considered private unless students opt to withhold it from public disclosure.”

Sunday evening, the ASU College Republicans sounded the alarm on social media.

“MAJOR BREAKING: 150,000 students from ALL Arizona universities including ASU and UofA have received a text from Kamala Harris’ campaign telling the students to vote for her. If Kamala Harris has access to all of Arizona college students’ phone numbers, what ELSE do they have?” they wrote.

In a second post, the group added:

DEVELOPMENT: NAU is the 3rd college in Arizona in which their data is in the hands of the Kamala Harris campaign!! It is incredibly scary that every single college students’ data in Arizona is now in the hands of Kamala Harris! Some Alums and parents have also received this!!

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk responded, “Where did the Kamala Harris campaign get access to this database? This is a major scandal. AZ House needs to investigate immediately.”

“Thanks, Charlie! this is a big deal! if they can do it in Arizona, they will do it in every state!” the ASU College Republicans replied.

Arizona state senator Jake Hoffman reacted to the news, and announced, “KAMALA EXPLOITS PRIVATE STUDENT DATA FOR CAMPAIGN. It is ILLEGAL for political campaigns to access personally identifiable information (PII) of public university students within AZ. This is a MAJOR security breach! I will be opening a full Senate investigation immediately.”

Dan Coulson, deputy press secretary for Citizens for Free Enterprise, commented, “The Kamala Harris campaign is now refusing to answer basic questions about how they got ahold of private student data… very shady… Glad we have @AZSenateGOP @votewarren and @JakeHoffmanAZ working to get to the bottom of this.”

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