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# Art After Trump: An Email Exchange with a Texas Elector
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/art-after-trump-an-email-exchange-with-a-texas-elector/
- Published: 2016-12-19T19:56:22.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:13:16.000Z
- Description: A liberal journalist briefly converses with a red-state elector.
- Author: Jillian Steinhauer
- Tags: Art, Art After Trump, election, Essays, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:23 (2016, 2017, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/12/elector-letter.jpg)

“Jillian.

I respect your fear and dislike for Trump. Please respect my disdain for HRC. It is just a difference of opinion.”

That was the first non-automated response I received from the Republican Elector. Our conversation began with [that online tool ](http://asktheelectors.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com)that lets you write to all of the electors in one go. I drafted a heartfelt letter imploring them to use their consciences and vote for anyone other than Donald Trump. I felt exhilarated at the prospect that little me might get through to powerful them. Then I got the Elector’s auto reply.

> Frankly, the political opinions of non-Texas voters mean nothing to me. I do not vote or get involved in your state, I am not sure why you are trying to interfere in mine.

I took umbrage. I wasn’t trying to *interfere* so much as *persuade*. I wrote back.

> Dear ——,  
>  
> Emailing you, someone who holds power in this situation, because I fear that President Donald Trump will bring on an immense global crisis is not ‘interfering.’ It’s an appeal to you as a fellow human and US citizen.

To my surprise, he responded. That’s when he sent the “difference of opinion” line. Somehow I had engaged him, and I saw my opening. I asked him a question about Trump’s conflicts of interest. He answered the same day (“That is an issue that remains to be seen”). I asked him about Russia, and he replied two days later (“there are only rumors so far”). I kept drilling down, asking him more specific follow-up questions, until he sent this:

> I only have access to the same information that you do. The Constitution does not vest any power in electors other than a single vote. I would love more information, but the electoral date can not be moved, and I have no authority other than a single vote.

I sat with it for a while. I felt sorry for him. The Elector sounded like the personification of a cog in the machine, a man whose hands are tied by a system he’s put his blind faith in. When I responded, I suggested that perhaps unprecedented situations call for unprecedented actions. I wanted him to see that he could join the [electors calling for a briefing](https://extranewsfeed.com/bipartisan-electors-ask-james-clapper-release-facts-on-outside-interference-in-u-s-election-c1a3d11d5b7b?ref=hyperallergic.com#.n8u597vuy) on the intelligence report about Russia. I wanted him to understand that in every situation there’s some kind of action we can take, however small, if only we can imagine it.

The Elector never wrote back. Instead, I got a new, updated automatic reply. “If you emailed me regarding Russian influence in the elections, I am open to any information that is not rumor or hearsay. So far, there is no hard, objective evidence of such.”

Twelve emails in, and he finally gave up on me. I don’t know why he ever wrote back in the first place.