Open Secrets following the money in politics, OpenSecrets Following the money in politics, Why (and How) We Use Donors' Employer/Occupation Information, Organization unavailable for these records. Do you value our journalism? This means that overall, Abbotts Texas donors gave more than ORourkes Texas donors. Learn more. ORourkes Powered by People PAC gave $1.7 million to his own campaign. Wheat criticized Abbotts decision last week to blame the power grids supply issues on frozen wind turbines. Learn more about our work here. We do this in two ways: It is impossible to know either the economic interest that made each individual contribution possible or the Abbott and ORourke have easily surpassed the combined $95 million Gov. Abbott candidate committee made to another committee affiliated with the governor. In Texas, Gov. All told, the candidates together have raised a combined $147 million, have spent almost $196 million and have a combined total of almost $8 million in their campaign coffers. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. If enough contributions came in from people connected "The nearly 113,000 contributions illustrates that Gov. 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. O'Rourke's latest haul includes $2 million raised during the first 24 hours of his campaign, collected frommore than 20,000 individual donors. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference regarding Texas emergency response to an unprecedented winter storm gripping Texas on Feb. 13, 2021. shifted blame to renewable energy sources, significant power generation was unexpectedly offline, Abbott assured Texans the grid was in better shape than ever. for data entry). Abbott is running for re-election in 2022. A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization, 1100 13th Street, NW, Suite 800 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. Democratic gubernatorial challenger Beto O'Rourke raised $27.3 million from Feb. 20 to June 30, while Republican Gov. AUSTIN Gov. Kolten Parker is digital executive producer at KSAT. 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.. 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. On Wednesday, Abbott underscored state Republicans delight that they held off the Democrats charge in the election immediately preceding a once-a-decade redistricting of political boundaries. Small donors make up almost half of the total amount ORourke raised. Paddie was among a chorus of elected officials from the governor on down demanding answers and solutions for why Texas grid was on the brink of total collapse in February. 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. may affect those organizations or their industries. Of all the statewide elections in Texas, the attorney generals race is expected to be the most competitive. databases are only as current as the FEC has been able to compile by that date (see the note above about lag times in the DFW area that need your help or can provide help during 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 . All rights reserved. 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. Greg Abbott speaks during a campaign event on February 23 in Houston. The data is from the period between Jan. 1, 2021, and Oct. 29, 2022. their contributions as being related to the "First National Bank" since that's the source of the family's income. Texas Gov. Still, University of North Texas political scientist Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha said Abbotts $38 million will scare off most of the competition.. 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. 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. Final fundraising figures show that both gubernatorial candidates raised a combined. by Mitchell Ferman and Carla Astudillo The warnings led to renewed calls for the Legislature to take more urgent action to fix the power grid. Abbott's campaign said it received nearly 113,000 contributions and that 86% of the campaign contributions came from within Texas. Although individual contributions are generally categorized based on the donor's occupation/employer, in some cases Democrat Mike Collier gets his rematch with incumbent Lt. Gov. Paddie has received thousands in contributions from these entities in election years, but never this amount immediately after a legislative session. O'Rourke did not say how much money his campaign has on hand -- or how much it has spent -- while teasing his fundraising numbers before filing his latest campaign finance report. The tour, which starts in O'Rourke's hometown of El Paso has scheduled 70 public events in 65 counties, including in many areas that historically have preferred Republican candidates. 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. On June 23, Warren cut a check to Abbott's campaign for $1 million, according to the governor's latest campaign finance filing, which covers January through June. Sign up for our newsletter to track moneys influence on U.S. elections and public policy. FEC and listed quickly on OpenSecrets processing and analyzing the detailed records takes much longer. Of the donors, O'Rourke's campaign said 98% of the donations were received online and that teachers contributed more than any other occupation. 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. Still, ORourke does have a few of his own billionaire supporters. A Schwertner spokesperson did not respond to questions for this story. For that While former Gov. The pay for play proposal was passed by the full House but was killed in Lt. Gov. The storm, as bad as it was, helped him on his bottom line for contributions.. There is also a time lag in posting the information. Abbott has run a similar playbook as Perry and has taken it to a different level, Rottinghaus said. Get the latest politics news from North Texas and beyond. Most of Patricks energy industry money received in June was driven by oil executives. Other billionaires with major oil and gas interests who are backing Abbott include Nancy Kinder, the wife of Kinder Morgan cofounder Richard Kinder; Hilcorp cofounder Jeff Hildebrand; Chief Oil & Gas founder Trevor Rees-Jones; Hunt Oil heir Ray Lee Hunt and Western Refining founder Paul Foster, who Abbott appointed to run the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in April last year. During the same stretch after the two subsequent . Greg Abbott. Collier now has more money, a stronger team and a ground game that has pushed Patrick torun a more aggressive and public-facing campaignthan he ran four years ago. Data for 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 Neither Cobos or the spokesperson ended up providing a statement for this story. Warren spent more than $10 million to try to get Trump reelected in 2020. Texas is already guaranteed record-setting spendingfor a governor's race this year, and the numbers keep climbing. ALBANY - Gov. This is up from 19% after the 2019 session. Since then, ORourke received four major fundraising bumps: one right after the primary election; one after he confronted Abbott at a press conference following the school shooting in Uvalde in late May; one after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in late June; and one at the end of September, a couple of weeks ahead of the voter registration deadline. Abbotts a prolific fundraiser, a weapon hes wielded to discourage competition as he moved up among Texas Republicans over the past two decades. Cobos was appointed chief executive and public counsel of the Office of Public Utility Counsel (OPUC) by Abbott in March 2019, three months after donating $1,050 to Abbotts campaign, state contribution records show. He loves being lieutenant governor and is not running against Gov. Through Nov. 30, even with federal fundraising constraints, Crenshaw in the last two-year cycle raised a whopping $19 million. And talk of a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on members to help keep our stories free and our events open to the public. Among the state lawmakers Karnei has contributed to are representatives Shelby Slawson, Phil King and Matt Shaheen, all Republican members of the committee now charged with investigating ERCOT. ORourke received $2.2 million from Austin couple Simone Coxe, who has worked in communications, and Tench Coxe, a former venture capitalist. O'Rourke at that time had raised $7.2 million while Abbott raised nearly $19 million in the last six months of 2021, according to January campaign finance reports. Greg Abbott - Governor of Texas "In Texas, anything is possible. Four out of the top 10 individual donors to Abbott are oil and gas men. 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. Visit us at Ballotpedia.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Texas has no limits on campaign contributions. Note that Paxtons top donor is the same as Gov. The Republican governor raised 26% more in last years final six months than the $9.1 million he raised in late 2016 the comparable period in his first term. Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. At the state level, In addition, both Gulf States Toyota Inc. State PAC and Q-PAC, which are tied to billionaire Dan Friedkin and Geoffrey Raynor, respectively, have also donated to Abbott in the past. Here is how fundraising by Texas Gov. Kelcy Warren, CEO of Dallas-based Energy Transfer, gave the most money, with a single $1 million contribution to Gov. Rep. Chris Paddie, chair of the state affairs committee, also did not respond to calls and an email seeking comment. More:Governor's race tightens as Greg Abbott's lead over Beto O'Rourke shrinks to 6 points, poll finds. Patrick, 70, has insisted he wants to stay where he is. In Texas, Gov. That is why Congress and many states have mandated that candidates, political Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. The Legislature ultimately passed a bill shepherded by Paddie in the House and state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, in the Senate that requires power generation companies to prepare to withstand extreme weather conditions. 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. You may opt-out by, Source of wealth: Houston Rockets, entertainment, Source of wealth: Computer services, real estate, Source of wealth: Hyatt hotels, investments. A contribution to a candidate may be given an In April, Abbott had been ahead of O'Rourke by 11 points. 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. However, her son, H. Ross Perot Jr., who is also a billionaire, has given $500,000 to Abbotts campaign. Kolten Parker, Digital Executive Producer. Carney said Abbott spent $6.1 million to help down-ballot Republicans. Warren's company Energy Transfer declined to comment on his behalf. 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. after the 20th of every month. The Abbott campaign said it has raised nearly $68 million since the campaign's start in June 2021. Texas Gov. This past Valentine's Day, Texas Senator Drew Springer filed HB 923, delivering . 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. Democrats have not won a statewide office in three decades, but incumbent Republican Ken Paxton is deemed vulnerable because of his2015 felony indictment for securities fraudand unrelated accusations of corruption that his top aides took to the FBIin late 2020. Slawson and Shaheen each received $150 last year, records show. grand total of contributions Greg Abbott has reported in 2022Number of Contributions from Individuals (above itemization threshold): 292,180. All other numbers in these Thanks to our generous supporters, our campaign helped secure Republican victories across the state of Texas this election cycle, he said. ORourkes 2019 presidential run created some problems, she acknowledged. Abbott his job, run a more aggressive and public-facing campaign, pushing the states politics to the right, 2015 felony indictment for securities fraud. 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. Oil grew to become the states signature industry, rich oilmen and companies started showering politicians with money and a romance blossomed. About 26% of Patrick's contributions in June came from energy interests, more than $1.3 million, his most ever in the post-session stretch. Crenshaw, 36, is almost as renowned a fundraiser as Abbott, 63. Abbott, who has held a commanding lead in cash on hand during the race, touts $46 million in his campaign coffers. 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.. Gov. The state of Texas imposes no limits on how much money you can give to your local representative, your senator, your governor, said Wheat. Last Christmas, Governor Greg Abbott bussed and dumped migrant families in the freezing cold in Washington, D.C. Oliver told KSAT that he was also unaware of any recent criticism levied toward ERCOT by Abbott. Texans for Public Justice released this week, A bill proposed by San Antonio Republican state Rep. Lyle Larson in 2017. More:Greg Abbott campaign promises 'knock-out, drag-out fight' in race against Beto O'Rourke. Greg Abbott's 2022 reelection campaign is reporting contributions of 19-million-dollars in the last nine days of June. How much have the candidates raised so far? Transparency USA publishes campaign finance data following major reporting deadlines. Abbott's campaign said it received nearly 113,000 contributions and that 86% of the campaign contributions came from within Texas. Both are from Dallas. Texas doesnt limit political giving, with no caps on individual contributions for candidates for state office. such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets: info[at]crp.org. Making a million-dollar political donation to reward the government for its light touch and encourage the government to continue turning a blind eye to price gouging and windfall profits while hundreds of people die seems like a good return on investment., Making a million-dollar political donation to reward the government for its light touch and encourage the government to continue turning a blind eye to price gouging and windfall profits while hundreds of people die seems like a good return on investment..