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Woman says she was fired as Greg Abbott campaign canvasser after video shows her laughing when a man said he wouldn't vote for him

Jun 8, 2022, 19:47 IST
Business Insider
Texas Governor Greg Abbott.Montinique Monroe/Getty Images
  • A woman was filmed laughing after telling a man she was volunteering for Gov. Abbott and he said he wouldn't vote for him.
  • Monique Dawson said she was fired after the viral video.
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A woman said she was fired as a canvasser for Greg Abbott's campaign after she was filmed laughing when a man she approached said he wouldn't vote for the Texas Republican governor.

Monique Dawson was filmed by a doorbell camera approaching a home, and asking the man who answered the door: "I'm volunteering for Greg Abbott, and we wanted to know if he could count on your support in the upcoming election?"

The man, later identified as Dr. James Whitfield, then responded: "Absolutely not."

Dawson then laughed heavily, and said, "Everybody's gotta have a job," before leaving.

Whitfield shared the video footage last Friday. It has been viewed more than three million times as of Wednesday morning. Watch it here:

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Dawson reacted to the video on Twitter on Saturday, saying: "I just saw the look on his face and it was pure amusement. I couldn't hold in my laugh to save my life, and they fired me."

Abbott's office denied that Dawson ever worked for them, telling The Guardian: "This individual has never been employed by Texans for Greg Abbott or volunteered for the campaign."

Dawson told the Texas publication D Magazine that she was hired by a firm called Arizona Grassroots which had been contracted to work for Abbott's campaign. D Magazine said it "reviewed direct deposit information and text exchanges detailing her assignments on behalf of the Abbott campaign."

It is not clear if Abbott said she was fired by Arizona Grassroots, Abbott's team, or another group. Insider was unable to contact Abbott's office before work hours.

In her Saturday tweet, Dawson also shared a link to a GoFundMe campaign she organized after the video. The campaign had earned $28,562 as of Wednesday morning.

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"As a result of this video being posted I was fired from my job. If you can spare a $1 or 2 it will add up and replace what I could have been earning as a campaigner. Bills are due and I have no other source of income outside this job," she wrote on the campaign page.

She did not say what capacity she worked for Abbott's campaign in, or what she was paid. Dawson also said she was told to say at the door that she was "volunteering," rather than employed by the campaign.

Dawson told D Magazine that she was initially unaware of the video, and "didn't know about it until I was told at work."

"At first, I wasn't sure they were going to fire me," she said. "About five minutes later, they came back and said, 'Yeah, we're going to have to let you go.'"

She said she has now applied for a job with the Texas Democratic Party.

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