Updated at 7:50 p.m.: Revised to include new information throughout

AUSTIN -- In a bizarre political blunder, a document laying out the Republican Party of Texas’s election strategy for the 2020 elections has ended up in the hands of Texas Democrats. Attacking Democratic candidates through websites and mitigating “the polarizing nature” of President Donald Trump are part of the plan.

The document — called a draft for initial discussion by the Texas GOP Party chair — was titled “Primary/General Election 2020 [Draft]” and began showing up in Democratic emails Monday evening.

It includes a target list of 12 statehouse districts, including six in North Texas, that Republicans are aiming to take back in next year’s elections. Negative attacks through websites, and highlighting diverse Republicans to counter a “narrative driven by Democrats” about the GOP’s lack of diversity are also part of the strategy.

Republican targets in North Texas are Dallas County Democratic Reps. Ana-Maria Ramos, Terry Meza, Rhetta Bowers, John Turner and Julie Johnson, as well as Denton County Rep. Michelle Beckley.

“Starting after the Primary, the RPT will generate microsites for negative hits against the Democrat candidates in our twelve target race—we expect each microsite to be roughly $500,” the document reads. “We will then begin rolling out these websites, prioritizing the races that were within 4% in the 2018 election.”

Democrats are trying to take the majority in the Texas House for the first time since 2003. After gaining 12 seats in 2018, the Democrats narrowed the gap in the House to 67-83. And they have made no secret of their desire to win the majority next year.

“Republicans have already fumbled the ball and we aren’t even in 2020 yet," said Manny Garcia, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. “They know they’re in deep trouble ‘given the polarizing nature of the President’ and expect ‘Republicans will refuse to turnout during the General Election because they don’t want to vote for him.’ The Texas Republican Party is desperate.

“Texas is the biggest battleground state and Texas Democrats are poised to win in 2020," he said.

Texas GOP chair James Dickey said Monday night that a staffer ”drafted some initial thoughts for discussion. He said that “it should not be news“ that Republicans want to to take back the seats they lost in 2018.

”We are doing that so we continue to dominate in 2020 just like we have for 25 years in Texas,” he said.

Points in the plan

Many of the strategies in the plan, like identifying targets and setting up negative attack websites, are not uncommon in politics. But their public disclosure — especially if that disclosure is unwanted or embarrassing — and the level of detail that became public is unusual.

The document lays out a plan to purchase online domain names affiliated with the names of Democratic candidates so that Republicans can reroute them to the negative attack websites.

“For example, we will purchase ZwienerforTexas.com, ZwienerforTX.com, and so on,” the document reads.

Democratic Rep. Erin Zwiener of Driftwood is among the other six House members on the list. The others are Reps. Vikki Goodwin and John Bucy of Austin, James Talarico of Round Rock, Gina Calanni of Katy and Jon Rosenthal of Houston.

The document says Republicans will audit search engine optimization results to make sure that the negative attack websites are on the front pages of various search engines and work with other stakeholders — such as Texans for Greg Abbott, the governor’s campaign arm — “to get any more insight on issues that matter to these districts.”

“We will attack these Democrat candidates with contrast hits which we will obtain from, public votes from the 86th Legislative Session, their campaign websites, and any other means to gather negative material on them,” the document says.

In addition to the individual websites, the plan calls for a “master site" to house attacks on Democrats across the state, focusing on federal, state and down-ballot Democrats and “how Democrat values don’t match Texas values.” The master site would be used to fact-check political talking points and for rapid response efforts when national Democrats come to Texas, the document reads.

“This site will generally serve as a vehicle the RPT can use to attack Democrats,” the document reads.

Concern about Trump

The plan also addresses a nagging concern for the Texas GOP: Trump’s unpopularity with some Republicans in the state.

“Given the polarizing nature of the President, I suspect some Republicans will refuse to turnout during the General Election because they don’t want to vote for him - though I don’t know that we will know what this universe would look like without us or a stakeholder creating a model,” the document reads. “Regardless, I suggest we set up a contingency budget to target these folks with mailers, digital ads, and texts to encourage them to turnout for U.S. Senate, State Senate, State House, and so on.”

It is unclear who the "I" in the document refers to.

The plan also identifies the Republican-led elimination of straight ticket voting as “one of the biggest challenges ahead of the 2020 cycle.” To address that, the plan details an effort to convince Republican voters to vote for GOP candidates all the way down the ballot manually through a tagline. Some of the potential taglines include: “Vote Right All the Way Down!” “Vote Right To The Bottom!” and “Vote RIGHT Down the Ballot!”