In Texas, a Republican hunt for voter fraud is raging through the homes of Hispanic Democrats

Cecilia Castellano was still in bed when the two agents rang her doorbell at 6 a.m. The men said they were at the Texas attorney general's office and had a search warrant.

Ms. Castellano has no criminal record. When she asked the agents why they had come, they told her, “We don't know, ma'am. We’re just here to get your phone.”

Ms. Castellano, a Hispanic Democrat running for a key seat in the Texas state House of Representatives, wasn't the only one who woke up at the authorities' door in late August. Nine men with assault rifles and riot shields showed up at the home of the man who had printed their campaign posters. A dozen came to the home of Manuel Medina, who was a consultant for her campaign.

The raids were part of what the Texas attorney general described as an investigation into election fraud allegations. But Democrats and lawyers in the state say this is part of a pattern of scrutiny that has directed the state's resources toward Hispanic Democrats, often at critical moments in the campaign. Critics call it voter intimidation by law enforcement.

Ms. Castellano is running in Texas House District 80, a recently reshaped district that stretches in a jagged diagonal southwest from San Antonio to the Mexican border. It has been held for 28 years by a Democrat, Tracy King, who is not running for re-election, putting the seat in jeopardy at a time when Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is struggling to get the votes to pass it of the law on school vouchers.

House District 80 includes Uvalde, where a former student killed 21 people at an elementary school in 2022. Republicans see this tragedy as an argument for vouchers that would give families a choice about where to send their children to school. But critics say the move would weaken public education.

A victory for Ms. Castellano would complicate the voucher push because the election results would work against the governor.

Ms. Castellano believes this is the reason she got into a spate of trouble. Earlier this summer, her family's construction company faced a lawsuit from Guardian House, a nonprofit that has received financial donations from the Texas governor's and attorney general's offices. More than 20 public records requests requested information about the work the company did. The Texas Workforce Commission has requested documents and said it is conducting an audit.

“How can I not think this is political?” Ms. Castellano said. “How can I not believe that they are trying to literally bury me?”

The Texas attorney general's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Affidavits filed in connection with the voter fraud investigation describe evidence of a “vote harvesting” operation in which poll workers were paid to collect applications for mail-in ballots, persuade people to vote and unlawfully assist voters in doing so to fill out the ballot paper yourself. They also say a recorded conversation shows that Mr. Medina agreed to pay for such services on Ms. Castellano's behalf. None of the allegations could be proven in court.

The allegations in the election fraud case relate primarily to events in 2022. Ms. Castellano did not become a candidate until the following year.

The perception that Texas Republicans are using the state to advance their interests has sparked deep skepticism among Democrats in the state. For example, the dispute between Ms. Castellano's construction company and Guardian House.

Ricardo Cedillo, a San Antonio lawyer representing the nonprofit, said the dispute rests entirely on the inability of Ms. Castellano's company to deliver a construction project on time and on budget. “She assumes that her political enemies are supporting or financing this refusal to accept the losses that she has caused and which continue,” Cedillo said. “She’s wrong.”

Democrats say the bigger problem lies in the investigation led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump. The former president's drumbeat of election fraud allegations, including in the 2020 vote he lost, have spread widely in conservative circles.

“It's an extremely popular issue on the conservative side of the world right now,” said Mr. King, which Ms. Castellano is fighting to retain.

That gives Mr. Paxton an incentive to investigate such an allegation, Mr. King said.

“But I think he will focus on those where they have the opportunity to help his party more.”

In August, Mr. Paxton launched an email tip line that said, “Any attempt to illegally invalidate legal ballots through fraud, vote exploitation or other methods will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

Mr. Paxton said his office has opened about 900 election-related cases.

But lawyers in Texas say very few have been brought to trial. Even fewer resulted in convictions.

“None of this is ever done to actually bring about a conviction or anything like that,” said Stuart Clegg, a Democratic activist who has been involved in such an investigation.

“On the one hand, they use the levers of state power in a way that they are entitled to do. But then again, they do it for evil reasons.”

In 2018, agents went to Mr Clegg's home and questioned his 16-year-old son about his election-related activities as they did not find him there. It was part of an investigation that led to the arrest of four campaign workers in the Fort Worth area who were accused of participating in an “organized voter fraud ring.” Investigators obtained a warrant to take a blood sample of one of those arrested, which they compared to saliva residue on envelopes used to mail ballots.

But none of the allegations led to a conviction. A Texas court dismissed the entire case last year.

Greg Westfall, a criminal defense and civil rights attorney who has represented three Hispanic Texans accused of election or campaign fraud, including one of the four arrested near Fort Worth, compared these investigations to historic efforts to disenfranchise minority voters in the United States to hold voting

In some cases, Mr. Paxton's cases were announced close to the voting dates. The investigation was occasionally clumsy as English-speaking agents had difficulty asking questions about Spanish-language topics.

“It’s like a cross between the Proud Boys and the Keystone Cops,” Mr. Westfall said.

The consequences are still real. Those accused of wrongdoing have lost jobs and income.

Mr. Medina, Ms. Castellano's campaign adviser, had to buy a new door after his broke in two during the raid. Agents seized dozens of phones and computers.

For her part, Ms. Castellano said she was overwhelmed by the allegations against her and her company.

“I'm not sure if I live in Texas, USA – or if I live in a third world country where they can just do whatever they want with me. Because it seems so.”