Its the same people talking to the same people and you wonder if the people being left out are the average Texans, said Wheat. contributor provides it. Kelcy Warren, CEO of Dallas-based Energy Transfer, gave the most money, with a single $1 million contribution to Gov. Democratic gubernatorial challenger Beto O'Rourke raised $27.3 million from Feb. 20 to June 30, while Republican Gov. A spokesperson for Paddie did not respond to questions. Paddie received contributions from Oncor; Vistra, the states largest power generation company; and NuStar Political Action Committee, an oil and gas group. Heres how they compare. More broadly, Governor Abbotts political committee, Texans For Greg Abbott, has built up a massive war chest of donations, from billionaires and many other donors, which hell be able to take into the general election if he wins his race on March 1. 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. The fifth payee, listed as Greg Abbott, represents reported expenditures a Gov. State requirements related to itemization thresholds and employment Showing these clusters of contributions from people associated with particular organizations provides a valuable OpenSecrets updates federal figures for "Total Raised and Spent" and for "PAC/Individual Split" a few days after The remaining figures - based on detailed contribution data - are updated by OpenSecrets Nearly half (45%) of the 1,200 Texas voters who participated in the poll indicated support for Abbott while 39% showed support for O'Rourke. Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke shatter fundraising recordsin the Texas governors race, see who has been donating to candidates with this campaign finance interactive. A Schwertner spokesperson did not respond to questions for this story. He knows how to walk that fine line between moderate Republicans and those that are very right of center, she said. 2023 www.statesman.com. If, for instance, Henry Jones lists his employer as First National The Texas House Committee on State Affairs is scheduled to hold a joint hearing Thursday morning with the House Energy Resources Committee to examine what led to statewide electrical blackouts. For that We will secure the future of Texas." Email * Zip Code * 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. Walker, the chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas and a former senior policy advisor to Abbott, contributed $7,620 to Texans for Greg Abbott from 2009 to 2015, state campaign records show. Abbotts candidate committee from another committee affiliated with the governor. ALBANY - Gov. Greg Abbott has $38M in his campaign bank, but is it enough to scare off 2022 challengers? Final fundraising figures show that both gubernatorial candidates raised a combined. According to the most recent campaign finance reports made to the Texas Ethics Commission, the governor received $44,778,653 in total contributions and spent $37,930,300 between January 1, 2021 and February 19, 2022. Ballotpedia is the digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections. ORourkes 2019 presidential run created some problems, she acknowledged. ORourke, who has had significantly less time to fundraise compared to Abbott, reported raising $4.3 million from the beginning of the year to February 19, compared to Abbott, who raised $5.3 million in the same time frame. Greg Abbott dwarfing other candidates in energy-interest contributions, according to a KHOU 11 analysis of data . O'Rourke is running in the Democratic primary and facesMichael Cooper, Joy Diaz, Inocencio Barrientez and Rich Wakeland. A report from Texans for Public Justice released this week found that Abbott raised more than $87 million in campaign contributions from the start of 2017 through the end of last year. the Coronavirus crisis. Most of Patrick's energy industry money received in June was driven by oil executives. corporations and unions can give directly to campaigns in many jurisdictions. Abbott received $4.6 million from energy. Kolten Parker is digital executive producer at KSAT. That said, she fully supports Governor Abbotts decision to declare the grid event an emergency item for the Legislatures attention and is fully committed, along with her fellow commissioners, to engaging in the legislative inquiry on the way to understanding what factors collided with a natural disaster to cause the outages. Copyright 2023 KSAT.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Gov. OpenSecrets A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization 1100 13th Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 857-0044 INFO: info@crp.org Updated: Feb. 10, 2023. Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke has had $47,177,963 contributed to his campaign. Dan Patrick, who has differences with Abbott, has never completely died out. Thats significantly more than former Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke. 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. Governor Abbott represents all Texans, and thats what he takes into account every day as he works on behalf of the Lone Star State, spokeswoman Renae Eze said. Of the $44.8 million already reported in the 2022 election cycle, 21.9 percent came from the top 10 donors. profiles for state and federal officeholders are derived from contribution records disclosed in campaign finance Abbott's campaign said it received nearly 113,000 contributions and that 86% of the campaign contributions came from within Texas. How much have the candidates raised so far? Hancock also has ties to the energy industry in his full-time job as a business owner. have always come from the energy industry, recently acquired by Roskis Majestic Realty. Gov. Other ERCOT board members are listed in TEC records as having contributed to several energy-related PACs. There was a series of finger-pointing and falsehoods from state elected officials who wouldn't accept responsibility and falsely shifted blame to renewable energy sources as they vowed to fix the grid. While some of this money. 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. Greg Abbott during a roundtable discussion at the Texas Department of Public Safety headquarters in Austin on Jan. 21. . 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. The totals, calculated by aggregating individual donations reported in those filings, do not include non-monetary or in-kind contributions. The power grid was not included. However, both candidates have national profiles, with Abbott regularly appearing on Fox News and ORourke running for president in 2020. Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke broke fundraising records in their race for Texas governor. and formats. O'Rourke's campaign reported Tuesday having raised $25.18 million over the most recent reporting period from July 1 through Sept. 29. Ron DeSantis, viewed as the greatest GOP threat to former President Trump's 2024 White House campaign, is visiting Southern California this weekend to promote his new book and curry favor as he raises money for Republicans in conservative strong-holds. That amount is up from 12% of his contributions coming from energy interests after the 2019 session, about $383,000. Patrick, 70, has insisted he wants to stay where he is. But an analysis of state campaign finance records by the KSAT 12 Defenders shows three current members of ERCOTs board have contributed thousands to Abbotts campaigns, with some of the funds dating back to his days as Texas Attorney General. Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke shatter fundraising records in the Texas governor's race, see who has been donating to candidates with this campaign finance interactive.. With this tracker . From June 21 to June 30, after the legislative fundraising blackout ended, five of the largest and most prominent companies in the Texas power grid supply chain Calpine, Centerpoint, NRG Energy, Oncor and Vistra or their top executives collectively donated about $497,000 to state elected officials and political groups. The epic Texas freeze fueled a surge of campaign cash, with the war chest of Gov. Abbott's support comes from a wide variety of Texans all across the Lone Star State." O'Rourke's haul came from 511,000 donors, with. Governor Patrick, who moved immediately following the February storm to call for the resignations of both the PUC board and ERCOT, both of which were fully reformed through Senate Bills 2 and 3.. Those donations included $1 million from Warren, cofounder of a pipeline company that made $2.4 billion from the winter storm, according to a report from Bloomberg. That's four times more. Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. While some of this money. based on summary reports filed by the candidates with the Federal Election Commission. AUSTIN Since a deadly winter storm hit Texas earlier this month Governor Greg Abbott has repeatedly heaped criticism on ERCOT, the operator of the states electric grid, claiming the entity was woefully unprepared for the dangerous weather that has killed a still-untold number of people. 4 min read. Rene Cross of the University of Houstons Hobby School of Public Affairs, though, said Abbotts most vulnerable to a test by a younger Democrat such as ORourke or the Castro brothers of San Antonio, Julin and Joaquin. Referring to gun control stands by ORourke and the possibility the Texas Democrat could return to Washington, Carney said, Being Biden administration gun czar is not the best credential to use to run for anything in Texas.. Tuesday marks the deadline for candidates to file campaign finance reports with the Texas Ethics Commission detailing fundraising and spending from July through December. Those donations have added up, bringing in about $9.7 million for Abbott and $37.8 million for ORourke. Abbott has long been considered a prolific fundraiser and O'Rourke garnered a similar reputation during his 2018 bid for the U.S. Senate, when he raised more than $80 million for his campaign. Greg Abbott urges letting the vote counting play out in Trump-Biden race, How a Joe Biden win isnt necessarily bad news for Texas Gov. In late June, it announced an $8.15 million digital media advertising buy, $8.8 million for TV and radio ads, and $2.75 million for Spanish media ads across platforms. Just before the energy donations poured in for Abbott in June, the power grid operator asked Texans, mid-heat wave, to conserve power and turn their thermostats to 78 degrees for a week in order to reduce electricity demand because significant power generation was unexpectedly offline. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Greg Abbott speaks during a campaign event on February 23 in Houston. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Greg Abbott hauled in nearly $19 million over the last nine days of June and boasted an eye-popping $55 million in the bank as he prepares to . Democrat Beto O'Rourke announced he's running for governor of Texas and says he'll move past divisive politics and bring the state together. Power companies were in the hot seat, as millions of Texans who endured a week of subfreezing temperatures with no power demanded sweeping, multibillion dollar improvements to prevent another deadly disaster and lawmakers promised action. If recent historys any guide, by November 2022, which will be Bidens first midterm election, Democrats may not be riding so high, he noted. 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. 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 . One of the things that contributors are buying when they are contributing to a public official is access. Greg Abbott, who is heading into a reelection year in 2022, benefited most from the flood of June campaign donations from the energy industry. The comments came during an appearance on Fox News. There will be one last update in January with final fundraising numbers for the 2022 midterms. The data is made public by the Texas Ethics Commission. Beto O'Rourke announces he's running for governor of Texas. individual contributions have yet been classified by OpenSecrets. The approach was a response to Democratic success in the 2018 midterms. voters, researchers and others. O'Rourke, who launched his campaign in November, raised the significant sum over 46 days on the campaign trail from more than115,600 contributions of which roughly 80% were made online. This gives us time to analyze the contributions and categorize them by industry and A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 to 2015 and as a member of the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001.. Abbott was the third Republican to serve as attorney general of Texas since the . Rick Perry and Democrat Tony Sanchez spent in 2002 and the combined $90 million Abbott and Democrat Wendy Davis spent in 2014. This is up from 19% after the 2019 session. Were receiving support from those in every part of this state who are ready to hold Greg Abbott fully accountable for eight years of failing all of us as he continues to put his extreme agenda over the people of Texas. But the bill didnt set a hard deadline for when the upgrades need to be complete and it stopped short of detailing how the state would enforce and incentivize the process called weatherization. Campaign finance reports by Abbott, Lt. Gov. Abbotts a prolific fundraiser, a weapon hes wielded to discourage competition as he moved up among Texas Republicans over the past two decades. 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. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, Oil and gas taxes now boost the state budget. According to its website, OPUC represents the interests of residential and small commercial consumers, as a class, in utility proceedings in Texas. On his first day in the gubernatorial race in November 2021, ORourke received donations worth a total of $1.7 million from his Powered by People PAC, which has been raising money since 2019 to boost Texas Democrats. These tables list the top donors to officeholders in 2022. requested and disclosed, if provided. Under federal law, all contributions over $200 must be itemized and the donor's occupation and employer must be The leading two candidates for Texas governor each pulled in about $25 million in campaign contributions during the summer, with a slight edge going to Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke who reported 10 times as many donors. Warren's donation is . Greg Abbott attacks Beto O'Rourke without mentioning him by name. At a time when newsroom resources and revenue across the country are declining, The Texas Tribune remains committed to sustaining our mission: creating a more engaged and informed Texas with every story we cover, every event we convene and every newsletter we send. As a Republican and a Texan, Abbott may have received significant campaign contributions from the NRA. state officeholders may be subject to longer time lags, as OpenSecrets aggregates this information from many sources He was not appointed by Abbott and did not return a call for comment. As of February 19, Abbotts committee reported that it had about $50 million in cash on hand. Among elected officials holding the same level of state office, fundraising varies widely. FEC and listed quickly on OpenSecrets processing and analyzing the detailed records takes much longer. Both are from Dallas. motivation for each individual giver. The figures in federal profiles are taken from databases uploaded by the FEC on the first day of every month. While summary numbers are reported almost immediately by the First, we apply a code to the contribution, identifying the industry. ORourkes top donors come from industries including finance, media and philanthropy. While (Gov. In addition, the top ZIP codes for both candidates are often those where political action committees are based. Of the trio, King received the most contributions from Karnei by far: five between 2004 and 2016 totaling $475, according to TEC records. More:Greg Abbott campaign promises 'knock-out, drag-out fight' in race against Beto O'Rourke. That amount is up from 12% of his contributions coming from energy interests after the 2019 session, about $383,000. Given more time, Gov. The data presented here is sourced from the Texas Ethics Commission, which displays campaign finance filings from candidate committees. Texans for Public Justice released this week, A bill proposed by San Antonio Republican state Rep. Lyle Larson in 2017. Greg Abbott, gives an update on an investigation into the massacre in Uvalde, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. Dan Patricks Senate. concerted effort by that organization to "bundle" contributions to the candidate. A spokesperson for Abbott told the Defenders via email, Governor Abbott has made the reform of ERCOT an emergency item and has assured the public we will not leave this session without reforming the entity.. 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. Critics said this and other storm response bills spearheaded by these lawmakers also failed to provide direct assistance to people harmed by Februarys power crisis or to help Texans reduce electricity use to take pressure off the grid during extreme weather. If enough contributions came in from people connected Greg Abbott, who is heading into a re-election year. interest group. As Texas voters go to the polls next week, it is clear which candidate billionaires are backing in the . Abbotts roster of rich donors is full of Texas Republicans with oil interestssome of who supported Trump ahead of the 2020 election. AUSTIN Gov. At the state level, Abbott is a member of the Republican Party and first assumed office in 2015. Copyright 2021 by KSAT - All rights reserved. During that time same time period, Abbott's campaign said the two-term governor raised just under $25 million but didn't specify down to the decimal point. Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. A fifth-generation Texan, Bob earned a bachelors degree from Harvard University. In some cases, a cluster of contributions from people associated with the same organization may indicate a All rights reserved. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, Stand with us in our mission to discover and uncover the story of North Texas. For some energy experts, the increase in donations for the officials at the close of the session looks like a reward for not passing more stringent regulations and raises questions about whether lawmakers let the oil, gas and the broader energy industry off easy for its massive failures. 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. Greg Abbott hauled in nearly $19 million over nine days and boasted an eye-popping $55 million in the bank as he prepares his campaign for a . With this tracker, The Express-News is providing continuously updated information on political contributions for the Nov. 8, 2022, elections, along with lists of top donors by name and by industry for statewide candidates for governor, attorney general, and lieutenant governor. Four out of the top 10 individual donors to Abbott are oil and gas men. Usually, state candidates in Texas get the majority of their donations from Texans. Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. UHs Cross said Abbott actually was straddling various state GOP factions long before 2020 and will continue to do so. More:Governor's race tightens as Greg Abbott's lead over Beto O'Rourke shrinks to 6 points, poll finds. contributions may be completely unrelated to the organization. Dillon is a two-time Houston Press Club Journalist of the Year and a Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Reporter of the Year. website. The former El Paso congressman and presidential candidate is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly 30 years to win statewide office in Texas and to be the state's first Democratic governor since Ann Richards (1991-1995). employer. Greg Abbott's 2022 reelection campaign is reporting contributions of 19-million-dollars in the last nine days of June. ideological code, rather than an economic code, if the contributor gives to an ideological political action Bank, his wife Matilda lists "Homemaker" and 12-year old Tammy shows up as "Student," OpenSecrets would identify all Kathy Hochul raked in big campaign bucks over the last six months to the tune of $21.9 million from a well of donors who also used to give generously to disgraced ex-Gov.. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. (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.). 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. He helped raised $54 million for GOP gubernatorial candidates in other states, Carney said. 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. The other organizations on the list include law firms, teachers groups and liberal political action committees. Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke has had $47,177,963 contributed to his campaign. That far exceeds the $6.8 million in cash on hand that ORourkes committee, Beto For Texas, reported as of the same date. Officials with ERCOT, which ordered local utility companies to shed load from the power grid as energy demand exceeded supply, are expected to answer questions during the hearing. Absent that storm, his contributions would have been different, said Bill Miller, a longtime Texas political consultant and lobbyist. Still, in the 2019 legislative session, Abbott successfully appealed to GOP leaders and lawmakers to tend to bread-and-butter issues such as improving public schools and lowering property taxes. by Carla Astudillo, Caroline Covington and Eric Lau Greg Abbott raised almost $25 million during the same period, according to. The twisted roots between the oil and gas industry and Texas lawmakers is almost as old as the Capitol building itself, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. However, Abbott has been a prolific fundraiser for years, which gave him the upper hand earlier in the race. A Crenshaw aide, though, said hes not thinking about running for governor. The Defenders sent Oliver quotes from a Feb. 18 press conference during which Abbott said, ERCOT failed on each of these measures that they said they had undertaken. Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, who is seeking his third term in office, has reported huge fundraising hauls in the past, amassing staggering amounts of cash in his campaign coffers. Schwertner went from receiving 3% of his overall campaign contributions from the energy industry in the fundraising period after the 2015 legislative session to the industry making up about 32% of his contributions in 2021. Because Texas has no campaign finance contribution limits, its possible both candidates will accumulate and spend record-breaking amounts of campaign cash by Election Day. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Show us with your support. Greg Abbott attacks Beto O'Rourke without mentioning him by name, $2 million raised during the first 24 hours, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. He said the latest contributions of $25 million came from nearly 475,000 donors, making the average contribution $53. That's more than twice the $207,000 they gave during the same period when the legislative session ended in in 2019, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. Greg Abbott. Abbott's campaign said his roughly $25 million in donations from the most recent filing period came from nearly 45,000 contributors, which is 1/10th of the number of donors reported by his challenger over the same time period. 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 loves being lieutenant governor and is not running against Gov. Abbott said 81% of his donors were from Texas. Patrick is in the middle of a131-stop bus tour across Texas, while Collier continues totout his alliances with moderateRepublicans who are endorsing him over the incumbent.