Of the $44.8 million already reported in the 2022 election cycle, 21.9 percent came from the top 10 donors. Tuesday marks the deadline for candidates to file campaign finance reports with the Texas Ethics Commission detailing fundraising and spending from July through December. Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke has had $47,177,963 contributed to his campaign. Greg Abbott. The comments came during an appearance on Fox News. With Democrat Joe Biden about to move into the White House and national Republicans in disarray over President Donald Trumps norm-shattering behavior in recent weeks, a big bankroll is about the only certainty Abbott can rely on. Kolten Parker, Digital Executive Producer. 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. Greg Abbott speaks during a campaign event on February 23 in Houston. 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. Its the same people talking to the same people and you wonder if the people being left out are the average Texans, said Wheat. While former Gov. 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. 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. 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. by Carla Astudillo, Caroline Covington and Eric Lau 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. Where available, OpenSecrets uses that employer/occupation information to identify the donor's economic interest. Democratic gubernatorial challenger Beto O'Rourke raised $27.3 million from Feb. 20 to June 30, while Republican Gov. In Texas, Gov. Karnei, the CEO of a Central Texas power cooperative, is an abounding donor to politicians and energy-related political action committees, campaign finance records show. Do you value our journalism? Polling data suggests a large percentage of voters might agree with O'Rourke on increasing abortion access and gun reform. Note that Paxtons top donor is the same as Gov. State or federal law may require filers to submit additional reports. 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. Rep. Chris Paddie, chair of the state affairs committee, also did not respond to calls and an email seeking comment. However, Abbott has been a prolific fundraiser for years, which gave him the upper hand earlier in the race. Greg Abbott continued his legislative push for "parental empowerment" in Austin on Wednesday while also expressing support for a bill meant to keep local . 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. A lot of things can happen. Abbott reported $37.9 million, with 79.1 percent of all spending going to the 10 payees topping the list. He gave $1 million to Abbotts campaign in June 2021. 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. If, for instance, Henry Jones lists his employer as First National 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. Since the beginning of last year, Abbotts campaign has raised about $5.5 million from at least 17 billionaires and 3 spouses of billionaires. 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. Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke broke fundraising records in their race for Texas governor. During that week, Abbott assured Texans the grid was in better shape than ever. And ORourke has over $500,000 more cash on hand than Abbott. 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. His team called the haul a "record-breaking amount" and said "no Democratic campaign in the states history has raised more money during the opening days of their race.". King, Slawson and Shaheen did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment for this story. Gas producers got a pass by Texas policymakers, said Michael Webber, professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin. 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. 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. ORourkes top donors come from industries including finance, media and philanthropy. State GOP Chairman Allen West heads most lists of possible challengers to Abbott in the March 2022 Republican primary, many of which also include former state Sen. Don Huffines. As Texas voters go to the polls next week, it is clear which candidate billionaires are backing in the gubernatorial primary: current Gov. But to build a better future for every Texan, I need your help. 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. Wheat criticized Abbotts decision last week to blame the power grids supply issues on frozen wind turbines. Copyright 2023 KSAT.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. O'Rourke's campaign said he got over 115,600 contributions over the 46-day period, while Abbott's team said. As CNBC reported, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer criticized Republicans in a speech on. Because Texas doesnt have limits on contribution amounts, rich and powerful people can cut massive checks to campaigns. OpenSecrets updates federal figures for "Total Raised and Spent" and for "PAC/Individual Split" a few days after Dan Patrick, who has differences with Abbott, has never completely died out. 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. available information, the donor is given an economic code. disclosures vary. Greg Abbott during a roundtable discussion at the Texas Department of Public Safety headquarters in Austin on Jan. 21. . His campaign accepted more than $12 million in political contributions from oil and gas companies and executives this election cycle. Patrick, 70, has insisted he wants to stay where he is. The data presented here is sourced from the Texas Ethics Commission, which displays campaign finance filings from candidate committees. databases are only as current as the FEC has been able to compile by that date (see the note above about lag times "I'm grateful for everyone who helped us raise $27.63. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets. Kelcy Warren, CEO of Dallas-based Energy Transfer, gave the most money, with a single $1 million contribution to Gov. Texas Gov. This is up from 19% after the 2019 session. Here's The Abbott campaign said it has raised nearly $68 million since the campaign's start in June 2021. Democrat Mike Collier gets his rematch with incumbent Lt. Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Tony Sanchez spent in 2002 and the combined $90 million Abbott and Democrat Wendy Davis spent in 2014. Although individual contributions are generally categorized based on the donor's occupation/employer, in some cases The warnings led to renewed calls for the Legislature to take more urgent action to fix the power grid. There will be one last update in January with final fundraising numbers for the 2022 midterms. individuals may be classified instead as ideological donors. 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. 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 bill proposed by San Antonio Republican state Rep. Lyle Larson in 2017 would have prohibited the governor from appointing a political donor to a position if he or she had contributed more than $2,500 in a year. 20005. Dan Patrick, she lost a special election for state Senate last month, Greg Abbott confronts coronavirus as stronger governor than Texas had 50 years ago, even with federal fundraising constraints, Crenshaw in the last two-year cycle raised a whopping $19 million, Dark alley no more: This time, Texas Republicans were ready for the Democrats, Pandemic. Greg Abbott said his campaign raised nearly $19 million in the last six months of 2021, a total that brought his campaign war chest to a staggering $65 million in December. 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. The totals, calculated by aggregating individual donations reported in those filings, do not include non-monetary or in-kind contributions. The top donor, Greg Abbott, represents reported contributions received by Gov. Contributors 2022 $71,842,556 grand total of contributions Greg Abbott has reported in 2022 Number of Contributions from Individuals (above itemization threshold): 292,180 Top: 20 Top 20 Contributors to Campaign Committee Export to CSV Showing 1 to 20 of 20 entries He knows how to walk that fine line between moderate Republicans and those that are very right of center, she said. At the state level, corporations and unions can give directly to campaigns in many jurisdictions. In November, Republicans held their 83-67 majority in the Texas House, despite organizing efforts by ORourkes Powered by People group and millions of dollars in TV ads bought by national Democratic super PACs. ORourke and Abbott will compete separately in their own party primaries on March 1, but many are already looking ahead to a general election between the former Democratic House representative and the current Republican governor. How much have the candidates raised so far? 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. Therell be a general election opponent, and [Democrats] will put a lot of effort in and theyll raise a lot of money.. For a time, there was buzz about Shelley Luther, who catapulted to fame for reopening her Dallas hair salon in defiance of COVID-19 restrictions. Small donors make up almost half of the total amount ORourke raised. (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.). The O'Rourke campaign said nearly all of the more than 511,000 contributions to the campaign, at an average of $54, came from online donors and that teachers contributed more than people from any other occupation. At the state level, While summary numbers are reported almost immediately by the Abbotts roster of rich donors is full of Texas Republicans with oil interestssome of who supported Trump ahead of the 2020 election. This gives us time to analyze the contributions and categorize them by industry and Dave Carney, Abbott's chief political strategist, said Wednesday that he expected O'Rourke to have strong fundraising numbers. 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. Thats significantly more than former Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke. 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. The remaining figures - based on detailed contribution data - are updated by OpenSecrets O'Rourke's latest haul includes $2 million raised during the first 24 hours of his campaign, collected frommore than 20,000 individual donors. There is also a time lag in posting the information. 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 . AUSTIN Heading into the 2022 campaign season, Gov. Sometimes it's hard to make apple-to-apple comparisons across some of the pages in a candidate's profile. such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets: info[at]crp.org. However, Abbott s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak has attracted criticism from Democrats, independents and staunchly conservative Republicans, weakening his once-robust job approval ratings in public polls. The Small Donors column represents the sum of itemized contributions from donors who gave an aggregate of less than $50. 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. How many donations came from within Texas? 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. 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. He said the latest contributions of $25 million came from nearly 475,000 donors, making the average contribution $53. Emmy-award winning reporter Dillon Collier joined KSAT Investigates in September 2016. We are going to defeat him and ensure Texas finally leads in great jobs, world-class schools, the ability to see a doctor, keeping our kids safe and restoring a womans freedom to make her own decisions about her own body.. 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. Dan Patricks Senate. 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. More:Greg Abbott campaign promises 'knock-out, drag-out fight' in race against Beto O'Rourke. This means that overall, Abbotts Texas donors gave more than ORourkes Texas donors. These tables list the top donors to officeholders in 2022. 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. In fact, Abbott's campaign said he has raised $95 million this election season. 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. Visit us at Ballotpedia.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Donors who give more than $200 to any federal candidate, PAC or party committee must list their occupation and Given more time, Gov. and unique way of understanding where candidates are getting their financial support. July 19, 2022 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. Fixing Texas power grid was about the only thing Republicans and Democrats in the legislative session seemed to agree on earlier this year. As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on members to help keep our stories free and our events open to the public. Greg Abbott - Governor of Texas "In Texas, anything is possible. Greg Abbott - Texas Governor (R) Now showing data for the 2022 election year. About 26% of Patricks contributions in June came from energy interests, more than $1.3 million, his most ever in the post-session stretch. Disclosure: Javaid Anwar, Tench and Simone Otus Coxe, Marguerite Hoffman, Gary Martin, Gulf States Toyota, HillCo Partners LLC and Ross Perot Jr./Hillwood Development Co. LLC have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Here is how fundraising by Texas Gov. The data is made public by the Texas Ethics Commission. He helped raised $54 million for GOP gubernatorial candidates in other states, Carney said. Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. Abbotts: Oil mogul Javaid S. Anwar of Midland had given Abbott nearly $2.5 millionas well as $200,000 to Paxton. Patrick spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester said: No one has been tougher on the energy sector and more proactive for ratepayers this session than Lt. OpenSecrets aggregates state data from many sources and formats. 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. ORourke received about 391,496 individual donations from outside the state, while Abbott received roughly 109,493. The Past 30 Days column represents the last 30 days of donations, starting with the date of the most recent contribution for that race. 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. Dillon's investigative stories air weeknights on the Nightbeat and on the Six O'Clock News. Last year, Abbott wouldve raised more if hed been able to hold in-person fundraisers and hadnt been busy as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Carney said. The PUC has largely avoided blame for last weeks power issues, so far, despite providing oversight to ERCOT. Ballotpedia is the digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections. motivation for each individual giver. 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 next year. Note that the same amount appears on both the contributions and the expenditures side of the reported data. The lag times vary for state officeholder data. As Texas voters go to the polls next week, it is clear which candidate billionaires are backing in the . On Friday, Texans for Greg Abbott announced in a press release the governor raised nearly $25 . Greg Abbott, who is heading into a re-election year. This past Valentine's Day, Texas Senator Drew Springer filed HB 923, delivering . But Luthers star appears to have dimmed after she lost a special election for state Senate last month. A fifth-generation Texan, Bob earned a bachelors degree from Harvard University. The organizations that donated the most money to Abbott this reporting period have previously given to the governor. Abbott hasnt detailed what he wants the Republican-controlled Legislature, which convened Tuesday, to accomplish this year. This article is a joint publication from Ballotpedia and Transparency USA, who are working together to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections. 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. A Schwertner spokesperson did not respond to questions for this story. The state of Texas imposes no limits on how much money you can give to your local representative, your senator, your governor, said Wheat. Despite corporations statements this week that theyre suspending contributions to Republicans, Im not worried about how its going to affect the governors fundraising, Carney said. All rights reserved. Abbott is bought and paid for by his billionaire donors, a spokesperson for ORourkes campaign told Forbes in an email. We will secure the future of Texas." Email * Zip Code * Greg) Abbott is taking million-dollar checks from the CEOs who profited off of the grid collapse, were receiving support from people all over Texas who want to ensure that our state finally leads in great jobs, world class schools and the ability to see a doctor," O'Rourke said in a statement.