Just 6%, or $1,141, of his overall campaign contributions in the brief June fundraising period after the 2015 legislative session came from the energy industry. After the 2021 regular legislative session, energy industry donations totaling $26,000 for the period made up 88% of Paddies campaign contributions over just the last 10 days of June. And talk of a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Im grateful for everyone who helped raise $25.18 million in just three months as we support the work of our organizers and record-breaking 100,000 volunteers, said ORourke. interest group. He also received $1.5 million from billionaire George Soros, who is known for backing liberal candidates. O'Rourke is running in the Democratic primary and facesMichael Cooper, Joy Diaz, Inocencio Barrientez and Rich Wakeland. Caroline Covington contributed to this story. The storm, as bad as it was, helped him on his bottom line for contributions.. Abbott is bought and paid for by his billionaire donors, a spokesperson for ORourkes campaign told Forbes in an email. Learn more about our work here. Oil and politics have been entwined in Texas for more than a century, since wildcatters hit the first gusher at Spindletop back in 1901. Greg Abbott speaks during a campaign event on February 23 in Houston. Texas' energy interests are the biggest backers of his political rise, and he has not ruled out a White House run in 2024. In addition, the top ZIP codes for both candidates are often those where political action committees are based. Texas Gov. Based on the Carpenter, Cobos and Walker are three of 10 remaining ERCOT board members after the five others all of whom live out of state resigned this week. Greg Abbott speaks during a campaign event on February 23 in Houston. Abbotts roster of rich donors is full of Texas Republicans with oil interestssome of who supported Trump ahead of the 2020 election. Corporations themselves cannot donate to candidates at the federal level but federal candidates can get contributions from corporate PACs, employees and owners as well as their immediate families. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton underscored how the gambling industry continues to covet a huge market now beyond its reach Texas, the . Democrat Rochelle Garza, a former attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, has struggled to fundraise at the levels needed to take on the well-funded and well-known incumbent. 4 min read. This article is a joint publication from Ballotpedia and Transparency USA, who are working together to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections. employer. the first of the month. However, his $7.7 million haul in the first half of 2020 was a nearly 12% decrease from the same phase of his initial term. Greg Abbott. Do you value our journalism? While summary numbers are reported almost immediately by the His chemical logistics company serves the oil and gas industry, among others. Beto O'Rourke announces he's running for governor of Texas. Other lawmakers who saw some of the largest spikes in funding from the energy industry were those who authored the power grid legislation and chaired the committees that heard the bills. Most of Patrick's energy industry money received in June was driven by oil executives. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. As he preps for 2022, Abbott may steal a page from U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who last year tried to hold on to fervent Trump supporters while appealing to more moderate swing voters in the suburbs. For that According to June polls from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, 4 in 5 respondents support background checks on all gun purchases, and just 15% support an abortion ban. Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened to cut off funding for the legislature after Democrats walked out of the final session to prevent the passage of Abbott's voter integrity bill. Political strife: The Texas Legislatures toughest 2021 challenges, A day after powerful thunderstorms, North Texas surveys the damage, 3 children killed, 2 wounded at Ellis County home; suspect in custody, How a Texas districts reaction to school shooting fears highlights discipline concerns, Carrollton man advertised pills on social media to entice teens to buy fentanyl, feds say. He has attacked the city of Austin repeatedly for reducing its police budget and repealing a ban on camping in public spaces that had generated thousands of citations to homeless people in the past. Board member Mark Carpenter, a senior vice president with Dallas-based Oncor Electric Delivery, has contributed $10,000 to Texans for Greg Abbott, Abbotts campaign war chest, since October 2018. There will be one last update in January with final fundraising numbers for the 2022 midterms. Texas has no limits on campaign contributions. State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, who led much of the upper chambers response to the storm that left millions of Texans without electricity for days in subfreezing temperatures, also got a boost in funding. While some of this money. Not long after, Abbott released a list of issues lawmakers needed to address in July during a special-called legislative session. In cases where two or more people from the same family contributed, the income-earner's occupation/employer is ORourke, who only launched his campaign for governor in November last year, has raised just $61,000 from at least 2 billionaires and 3 spouses of billionaires. In Texas, Gov. The power grid was not included. Abbott candidate committee made to another committee affiliated with the governor. Democrat Beto O'Rourke hasraised $7.2 million since launchinghis campaign for Texas governor, according to his campaign. Washington, Together, we will make sure that Texas remains the best state to live, work, and raise a family. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott raised $11.5 million from July through December, and now can brandish almost $38 million of cash as he tries to scare off opponents in his campaign for a third term . A Schwertner spokesperson did not respond to questions for this story. The rest of Abbott's campaign contributions for the 2020 election cycle are made up of moderate-to-large donations as well as small-dollar donors. Texas Governor Greg Abbott's 2019 reelection inaugural was a 2-day event that included balls, candlelight dinners, barbecues and other VIP events -- costing some $5.3 million for the celebrations. As Gov. Data for He is an amateur triathlete, enjoys playing and watching soccer, traveling and hanging out with his wife. These totals are conservative, as not all of the Sometimes it's hard to make apple-to-apple comparisons across some of the pages in a candidate's profile. Gov. Note that Paxtons top donor is the same as Gov. All rights reserved, Texas House Plans to Pass Largest Property Tax Decrease Ever,' Speaker Phelan Says, Texas Republicans to Vote on Resolution That Would Censure Rep. Tony Gonzales, 3 Children Killed, 2 Wounded in Ellis County Home; 1 in Custody: Sheriff, Actor Tom Sizemore, of Saving Private Ryan,' Dies at 61. Here's Wed love to run against him, he said of ORourke, a former El Paso congressman who gave U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz a scare in 2018. Small donors make up almost half of the total amount ORourke raised. But by the end of the legislative session, if Texas top power companies were aggrieved by the way they were treated by the Legislature or any of the new laws passed targeting their industry, they didnt show it. A number of factors, including whether an incumbent officeholder is running for reelection, influence donor activity. Warrens Energy Transfer cofounder Ray Davis gave $125,000 to Abbott. Where available, OpenSecrets uses that employer/occupation information to identify the donor's economic interest. Heading into the 2022 campaign season, Gov. In 2021, the Abbott campaign had out-raised the O'Rourke campaign since the start of their respective campaigns. Corporations themselves cannot donate to candidates at the federal level but federal candidates can get Abbott reported $37.9 million, with 79.1 percent of all spending going to the 10 payees topping the list. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. (An Abbott spokesman did not release the campaigns report for the second half of 2020, which is due at the Texas Ethics Commission on Friday.). In fact, Abbott's campaign said he has raised $95 million this election season. Kolten Parker is digital executive producer at KSAT. Abbott compares to the 10 other governors with campaign finance data available from Transparency USA in 2022: The data above are based on campaign finance reports that active Texas PACs submitted to the Texas Ethics Commission. He was not appointed by Abbott and did not return a call for comment. This past Valentine's Day, Texas Senator Drew Springer filed HB 923, delivering . The fifth payee, listed as Greg Abbott, represents reported expenditures a Gov. During the same stretch after the two subsequent legislative sessions in 2017 and 2019, fewer than 9% of Paddies contributions came from energy interests. But were looking at almost two years until our election. Neither Cobos or the spokesperson ended up providing a statement for this story. The Bush familys origin story in Texas revolves around oil and gas, and money from the industry has funded much of the familys political fortunes in the state ever since they arrived in West Texas. Some of the state data included errors in the address field; these records were corrected when possible such as when the donors address was available elsewhere in the data set and omitted from the location-based calculations when not. Donors who give more than $200 to any federal candidate, PAC or party committee must list their occupation and The epic Texas freeze fueled a surge of campaign cash, with the war chest of Gov. The pay for play proposal was passed by the full House but was killed in Lt. Gov. These tables list the top donors to officeholders in 2022. Abbotts potential opponents next year include former Democratic presidential hopeful Beto ORourke as well as several fellow Republicans who have criticized COVID-19 executive orders as overreach. ideological code, rather than an economic code, if the contributor gives to an ideological political action A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization, 1100 13th Street, NW, Suite 800 Over that same short stretch in June, 11 prominent oil industry leaders, including billionaires Kelcy Warren, S. Javaid Anwar and Douglas Scharbauer all three whom could not be reached for comment combined to contribute about $3.2 million to Texas elected officials, up from about $2.2 million over the same period following the previous legislative session in 2019. That amount is up from 12% of his contributions coming from energy interests after the 2019 session, about $383,000. Both candidates have received more campaign cash from ZIP codes where wealthier people live because thats who tends to give money to politicians on both sides of the aisle. He said the latest contributions of $25 million came from nearly 475,000 donors, making the average contribution $53. committee AND the candidate has received money from PACs representing that same ideological interest. 2023 www.statesman.com. However, the patterns of contributions provide critical information for Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke broke fundraising records in their race for Texas governor. Using previous figures reported by the Texas Ethics Commission, O'Rourke has now raised more than $65 million in what has become one of America's most expensive races of the 2022 midterms. individuals may be classified instead as ideological donors. Final fundraising figures show that both gubernatorial candidates raised a combined $160 million in the November midterm election.