I've finally got every Texas House candidate who will be on the ballot in November updated in the database at christackettnow.com. Now that it's all in, it gives us an interesting look at how the parties have raised money through the run-offs. #txlege /1
Let's start with the overall. $30 million has gone into Texas House races since 01/01/2017. Your top contributor to House races is Empower Texans, with $2.3MM, which is 8% of the total. Here are the top 20 in a pie chart (including the overall total) and bar chart #txlege /2
As I have mentioned before, I see Texas not with two parties, but with three parties: Republicans, Empower, and Democrats. This is due to the extreme lack of crossover between donors in the R and E camps. When you look at this way, the money splits get interesting. #txlege /3
Republican Texas House candidates (99 of them) received $15.8MM in contributions through the run-offs. The top 20 donors make up 36% of that total amount ($5.6MM). Top donor is Assoc Republicans of Texas Campaign Fund with $1.3MM #txlege /4
Empower Texas House candidates (42 of them) received $8.6MM in contributions through the run-offs. The top 20 donors make up 67% of that total amount ($5.79MM). Top donors are Empower Texans ($2.3MM) and Texas Right to Life ($1.09MM) #txlege /5
Democrat Texas House candidates (126 of them) received $5.7MM in contributions through the run-offs. The top 20 donors make up 18% of that total amount ($1.05MM). Top donors are Border Health PAC ($132k) and TREPAC ($127k). #txlege /6
I hear fear mongers on the right talking about "George Soros" coming in & funding a blue wave to steal away the state. That is absolutely not true. You just have to look at the numbers. Contributions to R & E candidates totals $24MM. Contributions to D's totals $5.7MM #txlege /7
The largest contributor to Dem Texas House candidates so far is Border Health PAC. They have given $132k. The largest House donor overall is Empower Texans, who have given $2.3MM. Empower has given more than 17x the largest Dem contributor. #txlege /8
When you look at the top 20 donors to the Republican, Empower and Democratic parties on the same scale, it becomes very obvious who is trying to overwhelm house races (hint: it isn't the Dems) #txlege /9
Thinking about the three parties and who has candidates who are more likely to listen to their home districts and not just a few special interests in West Texas, the pie charts of the donors makes it obvious (hint: you want to see lots of light green. Sorry Empower) #txlege /10
The next round of campaign financing reports come out in mid-July. Many candidates who didn't have an opponent in the primaries haven't reported since the mid-Jan report. This will be the first chance to see how the special interests have swarmed over them. Be ready. #txlege /end
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We can add Kel Seliger in SD31 to the list of Republicans being attacked by Empower Texans as we head to the general. Rather than “money from Austin”, it’s switched up to money outside his district. #txlege
Tim Dunn and ET World seems like they are really mad about wasting all that money on Mike Canon.
$349k - Empower Texans
$50k - Kyle Stallings
$20k - Texas Right To Life
$20k - Tim Dunn
$10k - Dick Saulsbury #txlege
And wasting all that money on Stuart Spitzer in HD4
$183k - Empower Texans
$57k - Texas Right To Life
$40k - Darlene Pendery
$36k - Jonathan Strickland Campaign
$18k - Stacy Hock
$10k - Constituents Focus
And on and on and on #txlege
Tim Dunn and Empower Texans are sending out letters to folks in House District 2, attacking Dan Flynn, the Republican incumbent. Yes, thats right. The republican incumbent is being attacked by the extreme end of the republican party as we near the general election. #txlege
First off, Empower is telling people to use transparency texas . org for campaign finance data. This is a site with campaign finance stuff, but what they don't tell you is that Empower Texans owns the site. Show up for data, read Empower propaganda. Not very transparent. #txlege
Empower is attacking Dan Flynn for 52% of his contributions coming from Austin. And yes, the 52% is a real number. Flynn has had $430k contributed to his campaign since 01/01/17, with 52% of it coming from an Austin address. #txlege
Since Jessica was good enough to bring up Paxton and Empower and declare "He's their man", I thought I pull together a mini-thread and few pie charts to help illustrate that fact. #txlege
In the 2014 election cycle, Ken Paxton was running for AG for the first time. From 01/01/2013 - 12/31/2014, Paxton raised:
$8,323,245 from 3,951 donors
$4,443,856 (53%) from the top 100 donors
$1,098,470 came from ET World (DOES NOT include a $1,000,000 loan from ET) #txlege
When you look at the Ken Paxton 2014 election cycle, the ET World money breaks down as:
Empower Texans - $402,470 (does not include a $1,000,000 loan from ET to Paxton)
ET9 (major ET donors) - $600,000
ETR (ET related donors) - $96,000
Total - $1.1m
2014 - He's their man #txlege
Looks like Texas Alliance For Life is doing "pay to play" advertising for some candidates.
02/25 - Mailer supporting Jason Villalba $11,886
02/28 - Villalba donation for $12k
02/28 - Mailer supporting JD Sheffield $10,483
06/08 - Sheffield donation for $11k #txlege
And then there is a $17k donation from Texas House Leadership Fund to Texas Alliance For Life on 03/14. Right after TAFL had spent $16,657 on mailers for Capriglione & Cosper ($13k on 02/28), and Clardy ($3.6k on 03/02), all candidates that THL had supported. #txlege
I know stuff like this has just been “politics”. This is the kind of thing the Empower World does, specifically with the New Leadership PAC (which I’ve talked about before). Please, let’s be better than that and not stoop to that level.
I've looked at the 19 Empower Texans candidates still on the ballot. Some serious money pouring in, dominating a candidates finance report. It's even more startling when you see the 23 candidates who didn't advance in the primaries.
23 Empower Texans endorsed / funded by the ET World candidates got knocked out in the primaries. There was A LOT of money poured into these candidates from all across ET World. The graphic shows you just how much ET World filled up their coffers vs regular folks. #txlege
There are just 4 knocked out ET World candidates who received less than 50% of their money from an ET / ET related source:
43% Susanna Dokupil
41% Brandon Hall
35% Chris Fails
0.2% Amber Pearce (late endorsement in a crowded field, but not any money of note)
This is nuts #txlege
What will follow is a snapshot of the contributions and donors to each Texas Senate race. I'll post the candidates by Republican, Empower, and Democrat. Pies will be added in fits and starts, but all will be in this thread.
SD2
Bob Hall (E) running against Kendall Scudder (D)
Since 01/01/17 raised $1,382,313
657 donations
$2,103 avg
ET / TRL - $503k (36.4%)
ET9 - $208.5k (15%)
ETR - $269k (19.4%)
ET World Total - $980.5k (71%)
Top Donors
- Empower Texans ($393k)
- Dan Patrick ($247k) #txlege
SD2
Kendall Scudder (D) running against Bob Hall (E)
Since 01/01/17 raised $131,596
920 donations
$143 avg
Top Donors
- Cristan Shamburger ($39.8k) 30%
- Kolby Flowers ($20k) 15%
Donations from
- Commerce 32.4%
- Dallas 16.9%
- Forest Hills 15.2% #txlege