Donating Campaign Cash: The Texas Oligarchs Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks (CNN follow up)

CNN aired a segment titled Deep in the Pockets of Texas. It focused on two billionaires funneling money into various candidates and PACs. Here is a breakdown of their contributions in Texas.

Farris Wilks. Wilks is the owner of an oil company in Cisco Texas. Over the last 8 years he has donated over $10 Million to various candidates, elected officials and PACs. $2,481,000 to the Texas Right to Life PAC, $201,000 to the Texas Home School Coalition, $273,000 to that fat bastard Jonathan S. Stickland, $425,000 to Ken Paxton, $453,444 to Mike Lang nearly his entire campaign fundraising activity. 

Farris and his wife donated $1,125,000 to Jon Francis in his losing effort for a State House seat. Francis raised $1,435,905 with $80,000 in loans. 

He donated $1.8 Million to the now defunct Empower Texas and $2.2 Million to Defend Texas Liberty PAC which couple with 2 other donors accounted for most of the donations.

Timothy Dunn. Dunn is an oil and gas executive. He donated a total of over $18 Million over the last 8 years. He financed the down defunct Empower Texas for a total of $7,727,500. $5,365,000 went to Defend Liberty PAC. $670,000 went to Ken Paxton.

$2,481.000 was donated to the Texas Right to Life PAC and $407,000 to State Representative Tony Tinderholt who has been married 5 times, twice to one person. 

He donated $1,700,000 to Shelley Luther in her failed attempt at a State House seat. She is the hairdresser that defied quarantine orders during COVID. $1,200,000 was to pay off her personal loan for the campaign.

CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen should recuse himself from the CCISD lawsuit

After the election for CCISD the loser, Misty Dawson, filed a lawsuit against Jessica Cejka demanding that she voids the election, conduct a new one, and give her $100,000. The suit was NOT against CCISD who actually conducted the election. Since the suit has been filed Scott Bowen has been running point on behalf of Dawson. Based upon his comments during the last Board meeting it is clear Bowen is compromised and should recuse himself from all further discussion concerning the issue.

Bowen was also on the ballot during the time that Dawson claimed election fraud. If a new election is required his position must be on the ballot which creates one of many conflicts of interest. Bowen recruited Dawson. He is the lead of school board candidate recruitment for the Harris County Republican Party. Dawson's attorney was the general counsel of the Texas Republican Party. The Republican Party endorsed Bowen. The Republican Party donated to Bowen and Dawson. Bowen campaigned for Dawson. If Dawson, who is one of the worst candidates ever to apply for the position, would win it would give Bowen the necessary votes to become President of the Board. 

Based upon his "legal" comments during the meeting it is clear he is working with the Dawson legal team. Bowen has been in closed door session discussing legal issues concerning this situation and I would bet he  is conspiring with the Dawson legal team and providing confidential information. This cannot stand.

Bowen must recuse himself from all discussions and votes concerning these matters.

Raising Campaign Cash: Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia

Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia easily beat his opponent in the Democratic Primary by 60 percentage points and will face former Commissioner Jack Mormon in the general election.

In this period covering 1/20/22 to 6/30/22 Garcia raised $787,949, spent $675,976, has no outstanding loans, and has a Cash on Hand balance of $1,897,179. Of the $787,949 about $160,000 came from 15 donations of $10,000 or more. The highest donation was $15,000. These donations account for about 20% of his entire fundraising for the quarter. 

Garcia's opponent raised only $63,144 during the same period.

Raising Campaign Cash: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo

Yeow! The report submitted by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo for the period covering 2/20/2022 to 6/30/2022 was so large (over 800 pages) it would not download from the site. I was able to obtain a copy nevertheless. Not only is Hidalgo running for re-election she is also a marathon runner and she is running away in the fundraising campaign.

In this period Hidalgo raised $1,150,804, spent $569,065, has an outstanding loan of $1400, and has a Cash on Hand balance of $1,983,697. Of the $1,150,804 about $290,000 came from donations of $10,000 or more. The highest donation was $30,000. These donations account for about 25% of her entire fundraising for the quarter. Her opponent raised 70% of her total fundraising from just 7 individuals including 4 who gave $100,000 each.

The rest of her report was littered with 800 pages of small donations. The reports provided by the County Commission is not like the Texas Ethics Commission where a spreadsheet could be downloaded and analyzed. It is difficult to analyze due to the volume of pages and donations. (but I did it for you!)

In contrast, during her run in 2018 Hidalgo raised about $183,000 in her January 2018 report. 

Raising Campaign Cash: Jack Mormon for County Commissioner Pct 2

Even with a poor accounting of fundraising, never "misunderestimate" the power of money in the Republican Party. With the party flush with billionaires and millionaires and with no limits on the amount of a contribution, Mormon could easily be right back in the game with just one single $1million donation. But not today. Not today.

In his July report Mormon raised $63,144, spent $19,585 and has a Cash on Hand balance of only $69,638. He has no outstanding loans. His largest donor was Richard Weekley for $9606. Weekley could easily drop a $1Million on his general election and just might. Other than that he had a very weak reporting period. His opponent in the runoff raised only $46,150. His opponents in the primary also had very weak fundraising results.

Mormon will face Commissioner Adrian Garcia who raised over $700,000 in the same period and has almost $2 Million Cash on Hand for the general election.

Raising Campaign Cash: State Representative Dennis Paul (voucher money)

Dennis Paul isn't exactly a money making machine when it comes to raising campaign cash. 

In his last financial report Paul raised $34,606, spent $21,461, and has $26,554 cash on hand. He still maintains an outstanding loan amount of $111,000. For a State House race $34,606 is a loser but Paul is in a safe district. Paul could be caught with giving a 18 year old a loaded assault weapon to shoot up a bunch of children and he will still be elected.

$1025 came from three individuals. $33,529 came from PAC money including $2500 from the Charter Schools Now PAC. As much as Paul kisses the ass of the NRA he has not received any money from any gun nut organization. 

BTW. Paul has scrubbed his website of any mention of any gun nut organizations. Luckily what is posted on the internet, stays on the internet.

Raising Campaign Cash: Alexandra Mealer for County Judge (Holy shit!)

I expected Alexandra Mealer to be flush with money but the details are disturbing.

On her latest report filed in July Mealer raised $764,544 which isn't a bad haul, but just 4 individuals gave over half of her entire fundraising efforts. Each gave $100,000 including the wife of Jim MAGAt McIngvale, Hassenflu of Fidelis Realty Partners, David Modest of Vega Energy, and David Weekley of Weekley Homes. David Modest is on the Board of Texans for Lawsuit Deform. (Reform)

Three other individuals, Ned Holmes, Flores, Pitcock gave $111,000. Seven total individuals gave 67% or $511,000 out of the total $764,544.

This is what we are up against. 

Contributing campaign cash: HEB Groceries

Some folks have been talking about how much HEB has donated to elected officials in Texas so I did a quick search. Here is what I found.

Charles C. Butt the CEO of HEB has donated over $23 Million since the year 2000. Of that $23 Million, $10.8 Million was donated to the Charles Butt Public Education Political Action Committee, a group which advocates for Public Education. He also donated $1.5 Million to Texas Parent PAC that also advocates for public education.

There are a few donations that raises red flags such as the $1.2 Million he had donated to Greg Abbott, his last donation of $100,000 coming in 2020. Maybe he has had second thoughts with Abbott advocating for vouchers. He also donated $31,000 to Senator Schwerter who was caught sending a dick pic to a student. $300,000 was donated to HILLCO PAC, a right wing group. 

So overall most of his donations are to pro-public education organizations but he has donated to some anti-public education officials such as Governor Greg Abbott. The entire list of donations can be viewed here.

Final campaign finance report: CCISD candidate Scott Bowen

Scott Bowen spent a boat load of money on his re-election campaign for CCISD school board. Even with his expenditures and the support from the Republican Party, he failed to get 50% of the vote.

In his last campaign finance report Bowen spent over $14,762 on advertising with The Yates Company, an advertising firm that caters to the right wing of the Republican Party. His entire expenditures for his campaign was over $20,000 not including the mailer sent by the Harris county Republican Party. 

He still has an outstanding loan of $20,000 on his books. He received a contribution of $1000 from Jeff Yates (affiliated with The Yates Company?) and $1000 from his mother. 

Campaigns for school boards usually require a few thousand dollars. Bowen spent over $20,000, 5 times more than any other candidate and yet he couldn't get more than 50% of the entire vote. Luckily with his buddy's loss, Misty Dawson, failed to give Bowen a leadership position on the board.

I look forward to finding out how much the Harris county Republican Party contributed to this race.

Final campaign finance report: CCISD candidate Misty Dawson

Some CCISD candidates have filed post election financial reports. I believe there will might be another set filed for some candidates after July 15th as well as for the Harris County Republican Party which spent a considerable amount of money in their support of Scott Bowen and possibly Misty Dawson.

According to her report filed with CCISD Misty Dawson spent over $26,000 but $20,000 was simply to repay a loan she took from her pool company the month prior. She never spent the $20,000. Maybe she just wanted to pad her campaign account to make it look like she was supported by the community.

Over $6000 was spent on advertising with The Yates Company a group used by republicans including Scott Bowen. In total she spent about $8000 for the entire campaign. She has $0 Cash on Hand. This should end her failed attempt at gaining a seat on the CCISD board, a position she was clearly unqualified for based upon her performances in various forums.

What is frightening is that she lost by less than 50 votes.

There ought to be a law against fake/false endorsements

I've had a boner on this issue for sometime.

Over the last few elections a number of organizations and candidates have published "voting guides" or endorsement cards for various candidates. The guides such as the one issued by Fort Bend United looks official, expensive, and as if it came from Harris County. (it didn't) And then there is the epic mailer that was sent to over 100,000 voters by Eric Dick running for Houston City Council. I've beat that dead horse long enough. You can read about the outcome here:

So after a couple of years of investigation and a preliminary and formal hearing, Dick was fined $30,000 and was referred to the State Bar. (Dick is an attorney) This fine was the 2nd highest fine accessed by the Commission, second to the fine of $75,000 against Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole.

Dick's mailer looked as if prominent Black elected officials had endorsed a slate including him. They hadn't. None of them had. This wasn't the first time for Dick. During his previous run for City Council he took pictures of himself with elected officials and sent a card that implied they had endorsed him. (They didn't)

So, what can be done? We need a "Don't be a Dick" bill. A bill that would make it illegal to imply, suggest, or otherwise make one believe that an individual has endorsed someone without their expressed consent to do so. Currently there is a law in place that makes it a crime to alter a video in an attempt to deceive voters.

This is needed for these fake and/or misleading endorsements. Until then, don't be a dick.

The Texas Ethics Commission issues final order on Harris County Dept of Education Trustee, Eric Dick

"It's like a nightmare isn't it? It just keeps getting worse and worse. Doesn't it?" --The Color of Money

The Final Order from the Texas Ethics Commission can be found here.

After the 2019 Houston City Council elections I filed an ethics complaint against City Council candidate Eric Dick. My complaint was fairly simple. He failed to put a "Political ad paid for by...." disclaimer on a mail piece he sent out and he failed to identify who he was paying money to. Usually a complaint like this will end in a settlement with a small fine and with no admission of guilt along with a promise to not do it again. According to the final order issued by the Texas Ethics Commission I couldn't have been more wrong....

The mailer in question looked as if prominent Black elected officials had endorsed a slate of candidates, including Dick. It was created by the Harris County Black Democratic News an organization that was also caught up in this scheme and eventually fined $6000. Unfortunately it is not against the law to publish a deceiving endorsement so that issue was not considered by the Ethics Commission.

The Final Order:

So after a couple of years of investigation and a preliminary and formal hearing, Dick was fined $30,000 and was referred to the State Bar. (Dick is an attorney) This fine was the 2nd highest fine accessed by the Commission, second to the fine of $75,000 against Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole. The Final Order sheds more light on the entire process and went far beyond what I had expected. From the order:

• The TEC offered to settle for $10,000. Dick offered to settle the complaint for $2500 with no admission of guilt. The TEC countered with a fine of $5000. A day later the printer of the mailer responded to a subpoena with data that made the TEC staff rescind the offer. Dick should have accepted the offer.
• Dick had claimed, under oath, that he had nothing to do with the mailer, yet the data provided by the printer showed that he paid over $20,000 for over 100,000 mailers and was directing the printer on every aspect of the job.
• The TEC sent a list of questions to Dick. His lawyer, Chris Carmona, offered to provide the answers at a cost of $900.
• Dick finally responded to the request and provided a document dump of over 11,000 pages. 
• After claiming his reports were accurate concerning payments of over $125,000 to PFS, the Famous Group, WS Services, and Blaze Campaign Consulting he changed his statement saying he had actually never paid anyone for any services. The original complaint claimed these entities did not exist and the addresses listed on the ethics report were storage facilities. The TEC agreed.
• Subpoenas were issued to the printer owner, Dick, and the owner of Harris County Democratic News. Neither showed to the hearing.
• Carmona claimed that Dick was under a "protective order" issued by Harris County Civil Court at Law No 1 and could not attend the formal hearing but that order had been withdrawn once the Judge learned Dick was under a subpoena. (Can this get any more weird?)
• The data provided by the printer clearly shows Dick paid for the mailers, which he denied.

I seriously thought this was going to end like most complaints I have filed, a slap on the wrist, a small fine, and an agreement to not do it again. Thanks to the efforts by the Texas Ethics Commission staff this resulted in a serious fine as well as a referral to the State Bar for disciplinary action. 

I get the feeling this nightmare isn't over.

Judge Lesley Briones responds to negative ads

That was quick!

Judge Briones, candidate for Harris County Commissioner, responded to a negative Facebook ad posted by her opponent in the Democratic Primary Runoff, Benjamin Chou. Chou created a Facebook page, Organization to Elect Better Leaders, as well as a twitter account which has 0 followers. According to the page the OTEBL "The mission of the Organization to Elect Better leaders is to make transformative change in our political system by electing ethical leaders." The hypocrisy makes hypocrites look bad. 

According to Briones Chou might have violated a number of Ethics Commission rules such as not putting on a "Political Ad paid for by..." disclosure on the ad, not registering as a PAC, not appointing a treasurer, and not identifying the source of donations. Now I believe if the amount spent is below $500 for the entire campaign these rules may not apply but then again I do not know about PACs. Whoever is advising him should read the rules of the Ethics Commission. His Facebook page and account was created by Human Age Digital who should also know the rules of the Commission.

This entire mess looks like a rookie campaign.

Who is the "Organization to Elect Better Leaders" and why are they attacking Judge Briones?

We have seen this before and it's just not cool.

An organization called the Organization to Elect Better Leaders has posted some Facebook ads against Judge Briones who is running for Harris County Commissioners Court. It seems there is only one person behind the ads and the organization, Benjamin Chou, who is running against Briones.

The Facebook account for the organization was created May 4th and was sending ads on May 10th. There is no organization listed under the Texas Ethics Commission or the County, or Federal sites. They do have a website but it is generic and offers little information.

Chou is claiming in the ad that Briones is unethical and offers an article as proof from the Houston Chronicle, an article that I could not find. I have asked Chou to direct me to a copy of the article but have not heard back. It seems like it is a made up headline and if true would be uh....unethical. The Texas Legislature passed a bill a few years ago making it a crime to doctor a video in a political ad. I'm not sure if that pertains to fake headlines such as the one promoted.

Choe is a young upcoming candidate associated with the socialist group Working Families Party, one that is supported by Senator Bernie Sanders and supports far left candidates running as "Progressives". Many of his donations are from socialist supporters.

It is sad when candidates have to stoop to win.

Are there more indictments coming from the Steve Hotze voting fraud conspiracy?

Discovery can be a bitch. I would bet there will be more indictments coming.

Steve Hotze, the kingpin of The Harris County Republican Party, has been indicted on multiple felony charges according to the Texas Tribune:

Conservative activist Steven Hotze on Wednesday was indicted on two felony charges related to his alleged involvement in an air conditioning repairman being held at gunpoint in 2020 during a bizarre search for fraudulent mail ballots that did not exist, according to his attorney, Gary Polland.

At the time Hotze claimed he had no prior knowledge of the incident. Unfortunately he described the upcoming attack and requesting law enforcement backup in detail with a US Attorney days prior to the event. The US Attorney, Ryan Patrick, is the son of Lt Governor Dan Patrick and.....he recorded the call. Hotze might be, what many in legal field refer to as being, fucked.

Who has been charged so far? So, the investigator, a former Houston Police Officer, who caused a wreck with the AC repairman, and held him at gunpoint, has been charged with multiple felonies. Steve Hotze has been charged with multiple felonies after paying the investigator $250,000. Both, as well as Hotze funded Liberty Center for God and Country, have been sued by the AC repairman. The awards are going to be epic.

Who might be next? So who else could possibly be caught up in this conspiracy after the DAs office conducts discovery? How about the US Attorney Ryan Patrick for not taking action even after Hotze told him what they were going to do? How about all those involved with the conspiracy theory like those in the "Ballot Security" committee of The Harris County Republican Party? What did they know and when did they know it?

How about those who were involved the Voting ConspiracyFest held in Houston? This might be a who's who of who might be involved with Hotze's criminal behavior, including Vidal Martinez running for County Judge, Cindy Siegel, chair of the Republican Party, Mike Lindell, investigator Aubrey Taylor, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Discovery will be interesting. Who had prior knowledge of this event? Let's see all the emails, texts, and other forms of communications between members of the party leadership and the "Ballot Security" committee of The Harris County Republican Party. Let's see where that takes us.

And don't forget....the former Police Officer who has been indicted for committing the crime might want to finally save his ass and start singing like a drunk in a karaoke contest.

Raising Campaign Cash: Insurrectionist for School Board, Julie Pickren

Yesterday I posted about CCISD Trustee, Scott Bowen, supporting a Trustee from Alvin ISD who attended the Jan 6 insurrection. According to Phil Archer of KPRC she attended the insurrection on Jan 6.

In one of her Facebook posts, she described singing God Bless America outside while some of the protesters forced their way into the capitol building, alleging the false claim that the rioters were actually ANTIFA members, not Trump supporters.

Pickren is being funded mainly by two Republican Oligarchs, State Representative Money Mayes Middleton and failed congressional candidate Kathaleen Wall. According to Pickren's latest campaign finance report she raised $36,000 with $20,000 coming from Wall and $5000 from Money Mayes. Pickren also has some far right extremist PACs supporting her run for school board.

This is just who we need on the State School Board, an insurrectionist.

Hiding Campaign Expenditures: Houston Dept of Education Trustee, Eric Dick

From the Houston Chronicle

After the Texas Ethics Commission fined Eric Dick $30,000 (second highest fine in the history of the TEC) I thought that this Dick issue had been successfully exposed. I was wrong.

Looking at the financial reports for the GPAC Conservative Republicans of Texas I stumbled on two very interesting donations. C-ROT is the extreme right controlling wing of the Texas Republican Party led by Steven Hotze and Jared Woodfill. Recently they held a ConspiracyFest fundraiser based upon the Big Lie in Houston. In the 2022 Republican Primary they published an endorsement card endorsing some of the most extreme candidates for office in the party including Don Huffines, who lost, and.....Eric Dick, who also lost.

According to the financial report filed by C-ROT Eric Dick donated $25,000 in Jan of 2022 and $25,000 again in February. At the time Dick was a candidate in the Republican Primary for Harris County Treasurer. Because he was a candidate he should have reported these expenditures on his own report especially if he was paying for the privilege of being endorsed or if the funds were being used to pay for the endorsement card.  Neither of these donations were reported on his Jan or Feb financial report filed with Harris County.

What is also interesting is his incomplete report filed on 2/22/22. His report summary claims to have expended over $208,000 from his personal funds but he only documents on Schedule G, Political Expenditures from Personal Funds, $107,750 leaving over $100,000 unaccounted for. Dick should have reported all expenditures “out of an abundance of caution.”

According to Dick's attorney the $30,000 is nothing but a political farce:

In a statement Friday, Carmona said the Feb. 24 hearing amounted to a “political farce run by a bunch of cronies and fat cats,” and said Dick has “every intention to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Let's see what the cronies and fat cats say about this in the coming months. BTW the Commission is composed of 5 Republicans and 3 Democrats and rarely fines a candidate or an organization any substantial amount.

Raising and Spending Campaign Cash: Defend Texas Liberty PAC

In a previous post about the GPAC Conservative Republicans of Texas I mentioned the $150,000 donation from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC. Here are some details about that PAC.

Raising Campaign Cash: The Defend Texas Liberty PAC was created in 2019 with Shelby Griesinger of Willow Texas as Treasurer. Over the last two years they have raised $5,701,482 from 20 donations from 11 individuals. Timothy Dunn CEO of Crownquest in Midland Texas donated $2,590,000 more than half of the complete total. Farris Wilks, owner of Wilks Brothers LLC of Cisco Texas donated a total of $2,010,000. Phillip Huffines (related to Don Huffines running for Governor?) donated $500,000 and Hindi Grimes of Houston Texas donated $221,500 The remaining $379,982 came from 7 donors. About 94% of all donations came from just 4 individuals. The entire donation list is below.

Spending Campaign Cash: During the same period the PAC spent $5,534,614. $3,600,000 was donated to the Don Huffines Campaign who ran, and lost, for Governor. $206,500 was donated to the Shelley Luther Campaign who lost in her run for the Texas House. According the Houston Chronicle Shelley "Shelley Luther, the hair salon owner who was catapulted into political stardom after being jailed for defying a pandemic lockdown order".Direct Texas LLC received $374,181 for printing services.

Donations:

Dunn ,Timothy	2,300,000.00
Wilks ,Farris	2,000,000.00
Huffines ,Phillip	500,000.00
Grimes ,Windi	221,500.00
Dunn ,Timothy	200,000.00
Dunn ,Tim	100,000.00
Fisher ,Ken	100,000.00
Dunn ,Tim	65,000.00
Dunn ,Tim	50,000.00
Dunn ,Tim	50,000.00
Van Wolfswinkel ,Randall	50,000.00
Dunn ,Timothy	25,000.00
Pendery ,Darlene	17,450.00
Leiniger ,James	10,000.00
Wilks ,Farris	10,000.00
Fulks ,Jayson	1,000.00
Tony ,McDonald	532.32
McManus ,Jeffrey	500.00
McManus for County Chair	500.00

List of fines by the Texas Ethics Commission. (Guess who is #2?)

Most of the time fines by the Texas Ethics Commission are relatively low especially when the elected official or candidate can pay the fine with their campaign money. From November 2003 through September 2021 the Texas Ethics Commission issued fines totaling $1,183,990. Of that, $1,004,071 has been collected.

The largest fine has been $75,000 for Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole in June of 2009. The complaint alleged Eversole used over $204,000 of his donors money for personal items including vintage cowboy clothing, books, and memorabilia. He had to reimburse his account $41,000. 

The second largest fine was for $30,000 against Harris County Dept of Education Trustee, Eric Dick for hiding his true expenditures for his run for Houston City Council back in 2019. His fine is not in the list below because it has not been officially posted yet. As previously posted:

Eric Dick, a Trustee on the Harris County Department of Education has been fined $30,000 by the Texas Ethics Commission for his deceptive mailer supporting his run for City Council back in 2019. Dick is an attorney and the TEC has also referred him to the Texas Bar.

The top fines over $10,000 include the following. The entire list of fines can be found here.

Eversole, Gerald	09-Jun-09	$75,000.00
Hecht, Nathan L.	04-Dec-08	$29,000.00
Keller, Sharon	09-Aug-13	$25,000.00
Estes, Craig	03-Apr-08	$17,300.00
Liebling, Scott	11-Jun-15	$15,000.00
Palmer, Elaine Hubbard	13-Oct-16	$15,000.00
Nevarez, Alfonso "Poncho"	30-Jan-18	$15,000.00
Eissler, Robert W. "Rob"	12-Feb-08	$10,600.00
Aiyer, Jay	23-Mar-06	$10,000.00
Wheatley, Melinda	28-Jun-07	$10,000.00
Goodman, Toby	12-Feb-08	$10,000.00
Texas Jobs & Opportunity Build a Secure Future, Inc.	07-Dec-10	$10,000.00
Sullivan, Michael Q.	21-Jul-14	$10,000.00
Trevino, Guadalupe	30-Jan-18	$10,000.00
Basham, John A.	26-Jun-18	$10,000.00

Raising Campaign Cash: Conservative Republicans of Texas

This is interesting.

A group called the Conservative Republicans of Texas published an endorsement mailer for the 2022 Republican primary with comments from Steven Hotze, the founder, and Jared Woodfill, the President of CROT and the former Chair of the Harris County Republican Party. 

The endorsements include Don Huffines who ran for Governor (lost), Money Mays Middleton who ran for Senate District 11 (won), Eric Dick who ran for Harris County Treasurer (lost) and Vidal Martinez for Harris County Judge (in a runoff). All of these candidates are considered to be extreme far right wing.

Since Jan 1, 2021, CROT raised $641,000 with Defend Texas Liberty PAC donating $150,000 (more on them in a separate post) Huffines $126,500, Money Mayes Middleton $50,000 Eric Dick and Vidal Martinez both donated $50,000. 

The largest donors of $2500 or more totaling $484,600 include:

Don Huffines Campaign	76,500.00
Don Huffines Campaign	50,000.00
Middleton ,Mayes	50,000.00
Eric B. Dick	25,000.00
Eric B. Dick for Harris County Treasurer	25,000.00
Ken Paxton Campaign	25,000.00
Vidal Martinez for Harris County Judge	25,000.00
Vidal Martinez for Harris County Judge	25,000.00
Jerry Mouton Jr Commissioner Campaign	15,000.00
Johnny Mark Teague	15,000.00
Sid Miller Campaign	15,000.00
Valoree Swanson Campaign	15,000.00
J B Flynn Campaign	10,000.00
Jerry Mouton, Jr Commissioner Campaignr	10,000.00
Kerns ,Steve	10,000.00
Mark Keough Campaign	10,000.00
Roberts ,David	10,000.00
Conservative Republicans Of Harris County	8,600.00
Steven Toth Campaign	7,000.00
Bert Keller Campaign	5,000.00
Brandon Steinman Campaign	5,000.00
Bryan Slayton Campaign	5,000.00
C.D. Group	5,000.00
Clockwork Consulting LLC	5,000.00
Darrell Apffel Campaign	5,000.00
Kenneth Clark Campaign	5,000.00
Metts Sr ,James O	5,000.00
Mike Schofield Campaign	5,000.00
Rachal Diane Jackson-Hisler Campaign	5,000.00
Sid Miller Campaign	5,000.00
Henry Dugie for Galveston County Treasurer	2,500.00