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Forbes

Business

Michela Tindera, Forbes Staff

Meet The Billionaires Backing Beto O’Rourke And Greg Abbott For Texas Governor

Greg Abbott Beto O’Rourke Texas Kelcy Warren

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a campaign event on February 23 in Houston. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

As Texas voters go to the polls next week, it is clear which candidate billionaires are backing in the gubernatorial primary: current Gov. Greg Abbott.

Since the beginning of last year, Abbott’s campaign has raised about $5.5 million from at least 17 billionaires and 3 spouses of billionaires. That’s significantly more than former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. O’Rourke, who only launched his campaign for governor in November last year, has raised just $61,000 from at least 2 billionaires and 3 spouses of billionaires.

O’Rourke 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.

Abbott’s roster of rich donors is full of Texas Republicans with oil interests—some of who supported Trump ahead of the 2020 election. Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren is one of Abbott’s top donors. He gave $1 million to Abbott’s campaign in June 2021. Warren spent more than $10 million to try to get Trump reelected in 2020. Warren’s Energy Transfer cofounder Ray Davis gave $125,000 to Abbott.

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.

“Gov. Abbott is bought and paid for by his billionaire donors,” a spokesperson for O’Rourke’s campaign told Forbes in an email. On O’Rourke’s campaign they added, “This is a grassroots campaign funded largely by the people of Texas—not the select few who know they can buy Abbott off.”

Still, O’Rourke does have a few of his own billionaire supporters. His largest billionaire donor so far is Margot Birmingham Perot, the widow of former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot Sr. She’s given $25,000 to O’Rourke’s campaign since November. However, her son, H. Ross Perot Jr., who is also a billionaire, has given $500,000 to Abbott’s campaign.

Abbott and O’Rourke are not the only gubernatorial candidates who have received backing from local Texas billionaires. In January, fracking billionaire Farris Wilks, who gained national attention when he poured $15 million into backing Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid, gave $2 million to a PAC called Defend Texas Liberty that donated $1 million to the campaign of Don Huffines, another candidate running in the Republican primary who is considered a long shot to win. Billionaire money manager Ken Fisher, who lives in Dallas, donated $25,000 to Abbott’s campaign, plus $100,000 to the Defend Texas PAC.

More broadly, Governor Abbott’s political committee, Texans For Greg Abbott, has built up a massive war chest of donations, from billionaires and many other donors, which he’ll be able to take into the general election if he wins his race on March 1. As of February 19, Abbott’s committee reported that it had about $50 million in cash on hand. That far exceeds the $6.8 million in cash on hand that O’Rourke’s committee, Beto For Texas, reported as of the same date. O’Rourke, 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.

Here are the billionaire donors to Republican Greg Abbott and Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s campaigns since January 2021, according to the latest Texas campaign finance filings.