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Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social

Feb 7 • 27 tweets • 25 min read

I’ve spent the last week counting down the Top 25 Donors to Texas Politics in the 2022 Cycle on TikTok. Here is a thread of all 25, who they are, and where they gave.

Kel Seliger called the Texas system a Russian style oligarchy. He’s not wrong. #FollowTheMoney #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

25 is Kelcy Warren, Energy Trading Partners CEO.
$1,705,000
Greg Abbott - $1.25m
George P Bush - $300k
Glenn Hegar - $100k

#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlegeq

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

24 is Alan Hassenflu, Fidelis Realty Partners CEO.
$1,761,000
Greg Abbott - $1.35m
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $500k
Eva Guzman - $400k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

23 is Bobby Cox, Bobby Cox Companies executive.
$1,775,000
Greg Abbott - $1.62m
Dan Patrick - $150k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

22 is Trevor Rees-Jones, Chief Oil & Gas CEO.
$1,890,000
Greg Abbott - $500k
Coalition Por For Texas - $500k
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $350k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle

21 is Ashley Watt, owner of the Antina Cattle Company.
$2,027,000
Sarah Stogner - $2m
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

20 is Charles Butt, HEB CEO. $2,053,000
Charles Butt Public Education PAC - $1.5m
H-E-B PAC - $250k
Jay Kleberg - $250k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

19 is James Pitcock, Williams Brothers Construction CEO
$2,095,000
Greg Abbott - $1.5m
Dan Patrick - $400k
Robert Nichols - $100k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

18 is Edward Roski, Majestic Realty Co. President.
$2,260,000
Greg Abbott - $2m
Dan Patrick - $175k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

17 is Joe “Rusty” Walter, CEO of Walter Oil & Gas.
$2,565,000
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $2m
Associated Republicans of Texas - $500k
Greg Abbott - $35k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

16 is Robert Rowling, CEO of TRT Holdings (OMNI Hotels).
$2,675,000
Eva Guzman - $850k
Greg Abbott - $750k
Dan Patrick - $350k
Coalition Por For Texas - $250k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

15 is Phillip Huffines, CEO of Huffines Communities.
$2,718,000
Don Huffines - $2.2m
Defend Texas Liberty - $500k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

14 is Harlan Crow, Chairman of Crow Holdings.
$3,084,000
Eva Guzman - $800k
Coalition Por For Texas - $750k
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $500k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

13 is Mayes Middleton, President of Middleton Oil Company and TX State Senator.
$3,288,000
His campaign - $1.7m
Conservatives for Law Enforcement & Border Security - $500k
#FollowTheMoney #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

12 is Miriam Adelson, Majority Owner of Las Vegas Sands
$3,300,000
Texas Sands PAC - $2.3m
Greg Abbott - $1.0m
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

11 is Jeffery Hildebrand, Hilcorp Energy Chairman.
$3,385,000
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $1.5m
Greg Abbott - $1.03m
Dan Patrick - $250k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

10 is George Soros, Soros Fund Management Executive.
$3,442,000
Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC - $1.94m
Beto O’Rourke - $1.5m
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

9 is Farris Wilks, Wilks Brothers LLC Owner.
$3,477,000
Defend Texas Liberty - $3.1m
Don Huffines - $100k
Michael Olcott - $75k
Ken Paxton - $50k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

8 is John Nau, Silver Eagle Beverages (Anheuser-Busch Distributor) CEO.
$3,483,000
Associated Republicans of Texas - $1.87m
Greg Abbott - $767k
Dawn Buckingham - $170k
#FollowTheMoney #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

7 is Kenny Troutt, Mount Vernon Investments CEO.
$3,575,000
Greg Abbott - $2m
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $1m
Dan Patrick - $300k
Ken Paxton - $200k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

6 is H. Ross Perot Jr., Hillwood Development Chairman.
$3,866,000
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $2m
Greg Abbott - $1m
Dan Patrick - $250k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

5 is Michael & Mary Porter, Cross Creek Ranch Owners.
$4,186,000
Texans for Responsible Government - $2m
Greg Abbott - $1.25m
Dawn Buckingham $400k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

4 is S. Javaid Anwar, Midland Energy President.
$4,988,000
Greg Abbott - $3m
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $750k
Dan Patrick - $450k
Ken Paxton - $375k
#FollowTheMoney #TexasPolitics #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

3 is Richard Weekley, Weekley Properties CEO, Texans for Lawsuit Reform CEO.
$5,408,000
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $2m
Eva Guzman - $1.1m
Coalition Por For Texas - $750k
#FollowTheMoney #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

2 is Jan Duncan, widow of Dan Duncan, founder of Enterprise Product Partners (pipelines).
$7,049,000
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $6m
Greg Abbott - $510k
Eva Guzman - $275k
#FollowTheMoney #txlege

Counting down the top 25 individual donors to Texas politics in the 2022 cycle.

1 is Tim Dunn, CrownQuest Operating CEO, Empower Texans Chairman, Texas Public Policy Foundation Vice Chair.
$7,872,000
Defend Texas Liberty - $7.1m
Dan Patrick - $257k
#FollowTheMoney #txlege

When you look at what the 25 top individual donors gave in the 2022 cycle in aggregate, it's $83.9 million.
Who raked it in?
Greg Abbott - $18.6m
Texans for Lawsuit Reform - $16.8m
Defend Texas Liberty - $10.7m
Dan Patrick - $3.5m
Eva Guzman - $3.4m
#FollowTheMoney #txlege

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More from @cjtackett

Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social

@cjtackett

Feb 8

There are four types pushing “school choice”

1. For the Catholic Church and billionaire Evangelical Christians like Betsy DeVos, publicly funded vouchers for private religious schools opens a path to taxpayer support for their religious orgs.

Make money + indoctrination

There are four types pushing “school choice”

2. For billionaires like the Walton family, John Arnold and Charles Koch, school choice grants a path to undermining public education and lowering taxes.

Keep tax money, make more money, indoctrination if it helps them out.

There are four types pushing “school choice”

3. For billionaires like Bill Gates, Reed Hastings and Michael Dell, school choice prepares a path for creating an education technology industry that has the promise of huge future profits.

All about the money

Read 12 tweets

Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social

@cjtackett

Feb 8

In 2006, Milton Friedman, economist and school choice advocate since 1955, right after Brown v Board desegregated schools, spelled out what the goals really are: abolish the public school system. And if they can’t do that, vouchers. Feel familiar? #publicschools

Here is Milton Friedman in 1955 on why we shouldn’t have free public schools.

“The advantage of imposing the costs on the parents is that it would tend to equalize the social and private costs of having children and so promote a better distribution of families by size.”

Friedman discussing lower birth rates among the wealthy (and why schools shouldn’t be free):
“children are relatively more expensive to [high socioeconomic folks], thanks in considerable measure to the higher standards of education they maintain and the costs of which they bear.”

Read 5 tweets

Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social

@cjtackett

Jan 7

@indivisibletx24

At the Extremism’s Impact On Public Education forum, hosted by @indivisibletx24, I talked about the money, ideology, cannonballs into the deep end, and ripples that come from it. (1.1) #WhiteChrisitanNationalism #publiceducation #bannedbooks

@indivisibletx24

At the Extremism’s Impact On Public Education forum, hosted by @indivisibletx24, this clip is where I delved into the cannonball and specific ripples. (1.2) #WhiteChrisitanNationalism #publiceducation #bannedbooks

@indivisibletx24

At the Extremism’s Impact On Public Education forum, hosted by @indivisibletx24, it’s Patriot Mobile time. With a lot of money. Going after school boards. (2.1) #WhiteChrisitanNationalism #publiceducation #bannedbooks

Read 5 tweets

Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social

@cjtackett

Nov 23, 2022

Here is a hot take. Yes, Texas voting restrictions made it more challenging to vote, but certainly not insurmountable (8 million figured it out). I think the more people talked about how hard it was to vote, it probably did more harm to Dems chances than good.

For someone who aligned with Dems but wasn’t crazy passionate to vote (as the crazy passionate likely did get to the polls), when the broad dialogue keeps with the negative “it’s going to be so hard”, I think that almost instantly pushes that maybe voter to a non-voter.

Yes, it was made harder to vote in Texas. But by hammering that point over and over, I believe it demotivated maybe voters who decided to stay home.

Instead, we should have been messaging “here is the easy way to vote” and actually established infrastructure to make that true.

Read 4 tweets

Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social

@cjtackett

Nov 22, 2022

Three main things that led to the outcomes in the TX Statewide races for Dems.

1. "There were 754,890 voters with previous Democratic Primary history who did not vote in this election [in Texas]." (731k R's didn't show, but R #'s are ⬆️)

@longhornderek

2. [In Texas,] "923,023 individuals aged 18 to 29 voted, yet there were 3,656,849 registered voters in that age range. That means 75% of 18- to 29-year-olds stayed home this year."

"Registered voters aged 18 to 29 made up only 11% of all votes cast."
(all 🧵data @longhornderek)

3. "In Texas, there were 549,812 people with a registration date after the Dobbs opinion’s official release (June 24th)."

"Only 47.7% of the 549,812 post-Dobbs registrants ended up voting this year."

Read 7 tweets

Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social

@cjtackett

Nov 20, 2022

When something bad happens and people immediately rush forward and say “they are a good person”, “I know the family”, and “facts matter”, but you haven’t actually seen the story, read the article, heard the facts, you are merely rallying around your sameness.

The “good person” / “I know the family” stance is purely anecdotal, as in your personal interactions with them, they may have been positive, but you have no inside knowledge of anything else about the individual, how they interact with others, the decisions they make.

When you chime in with “Don’t know the story”, that means you don’t know those facts. When reporting is done by real news organizations, there are facts, there are receipts, there are interviews. After the reporting, you either see accountability or sweeping things under the rug.

Read 8 tweets

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