Yahoo Finance Two arch-conservative billionaires loom large in North Texas House runoffs. Why?
Two Texas billionaires are looming large in North Texas elections, even if you aren’t seeing them.
West Texas oilmen Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, both major Republican donors, have waded into a number of North Texas legislative races, including ones that are in primary runoffs May 28 (early voting is May 20-24). Together they’ve spent at least $7.8 million to help elect their lawmakers of choice.
Their involvement, direct or indirect, is drawing ire from Republican candidates on the receiving end of the criticism. The candidates say Wilks and Dunn, through groups they support, are flooding voters with false information about their conservative credentials.
“I’m not going to be bought like that, and I think they want candidates that they can control so they can control the Legislature,” said DeWayne Burns, a Cleburne Republican who is seeking reelection.
A complex web of groups and candidates are backed by Dunn and Wilks. At the top of the list, perhaps, are Defend Texas Liberty PAC and Texans United for a Conservative Majority PAC, which have spent upwards of $3.7 million this election cycle.
“They’ve got the money and they’ve got the ear of many conservative Republicans,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor. “That’s a recipe for success in primaries that tend to have a small number of very active and partisan constituents”
Over the past decade the two billionaires have helped push Texas to the right by backing lawmakers who have advocated bills on guns, transgender issues and school vouchers.
Their influence can be both overstated and understated, said Jim Riddlesperger, a TCU political science professor.
Concerns over border security, fight over school vouchers, the influence of Donald Trump and recent scandals around Attorney General Ken Paxton add layers to what has been a heated primary season.
“There are a whole bunch of dynamics working together in Republican Party politics in Texas, and one of them of course is the contributions of Dunn and others,” Riddlesperger said. “But there are many other factors as well.”
Republicans have have held every statewide office since 1998.
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Meet Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks
Dunn is the founder and owner of Crownquest, a Midland based oil company. He and his family are worth a combined $2.2 billion, according to Forbes. Wilks, who lives in Cisco and made his fortune in the oil and fracking industry, is worth $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Their involvement in Republican politics in Texas and beyond is well-documented. Neither returned requests for comment.
Together, they’ve donated about $39 million to Texas candidates and political groups that filed with the Texas Ethics Commission over the past decade. Some of the groups they’ve backed include Empower Texans, Defend Texas Liberty, and now, Texans United for a Conservative Majority.
Little by little, over the years, Dunn, Wilks and their allies have been able to defeat incumbents who are considered moderates and replace them with lawmakers who are more conservative, Riddlesperger said.
“It’s taken this wing of the Republican Party and allied groups a fair amount of time to change Texas politics, but they’ve done it,” Riddlesperger said.
Rep. Lynn Stucky, a Denton Republican whose opponent is backed by groups linked to the prolific donors, says groups supported by the Texas billionaires have had to reinvent themselves after scandals, but the groups remain the same at their core.
Empower Texans fizzled after a recording was released in 2019 of a meeting between former House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan in which Bonnen encouraged the group to target some Republicans. In 2020, staff members from the group were caught on a hot mic mocking Gov. Greg Abbott’s wheelchair use.
Defend Texas Liberty has been under fire since October, when its leader Jonathan Stickland (a former state representative from Bedford) was caught meeting with white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Following backlash from the meeting, the Texans United for a Conservative Majority political action committee was formed. It has donated more than $2 million to candidates between the start of 2023 and the March primary. More recent campaign finance statements haven’t yet been filed.
Donations from Wilks and Dunn make up about 80% of the group’s total funding during the 2024 election cycle, according to Transparency USA.
Defend Texas Liberty PAC’s president Luke Macias asked the Star-Telegram to email questions but did not return written responses. The campaign treasurer for Texans United for a Conservative Majority did not return multiple calls seeking comment.
Wilks, Dunn’s North Texas involvement
Wilks and Dunn are in the corner of five North Texas House candidates who are on the May 28 runoff ballot:
Andy Hopper, who is running against Rep. Lynn Stucky for House District 64 in Denton and Wise County.
Cheryl Bean, who is running against John McQueeney for House District 97 in southwest Tarrant County.
Helen Kerwin, who is running against Rep. DeWayne Burns in House District 58 in the Cleburne area..
Katrina Pierson, who is running against Rep. Dustin Holland in House District 33 in the Rockwall area.
David Lowe, who is running against Rep. Stephanie Klick in House District 91 in North Richland Hills, Haltom City and Watauga.
All are running against Republican incumbents, with the exception of Bean, who is running for an open seat after Rep. Craig Goldman opted to run for Congress. (Goldman is also in a runoff.)
Texans United for a Conservative Majority have donated $553,000 to the candidates combined.
Groups linked to Dunn and Wilks are behind attack mailers that have gone out across the state, according to a San Antonio Express-News report.
The mailers are something Stucky, a Denton Republican who is in a runoff with Hopper, says he has seen in his district. He described them as “spreading complete lies.”
“People who don’t know Lynn Stucky, like in my new part of the district, Wise County, they lay them out on their kitchen table, their bar, their coffee table and they go, ‘Wow, all these different people hate Lynn Stucky, he must be a bad person,’ ” Stucky said. “All those different people are the same people. They’re getting bamboozled by the Great Deceiver, is what they’re getting.”
Dunn and Wilks’ involvement creates “a deeper split” within the party, said Stucky, whose opponent has received $280,000 from Texans United for a Conservative Majority. Hopper did not return requests for comment.
“If you’re a billionaire, you can afford to spend several million dollars every election cycle,” said Holland, whose opponent Pierson was a spokesperson for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and has received funds from Texans United for a Conservative Majority. “For me, I think it’s chipping away at democracy.”
Pierson’s campaign asked that questions be emailed, but did not return responses.
Klick encouraged voters to “do their homework.”
“I think that a lot of it is deception, and people need to know that,” Klick said.
Candidates reached by the Star-Telegram defended their campaigns.
Lowe, who has received $125,000 from the Texans United for a Conservative Majority PAC, said that he’s never met the Wilks or Dunn families and that they’ve never asked anything from him. He hadn’t even heard of them when he first ran two years ago, he said. Lowe said he’s not consulted on any attack mailers or donations.
“Even though those groups support me, I still have an open mind, and I still think for myself,” Lowe said. “I’m not going to be anybody’s lap dog.”
He also pushed back against being linked to Stickland’s meeting with Fuentes — calling it a “distraction from the issues,” and offensive, given that his wife and her family are Jewish. Asked if he’s done anything to distance himself from Defend Texas Liberty, which donated to his 2022 campaign, Lowe said he’s “just focused on the issues.”
Kerwin, who is running against Burns, has “strong and broad support from all manner of Republicans, conservatives, and people who want to see common sense reforms to make the Texas State House more responsive to the priorities of grassroots Texans,” campaign spokesperson Chris Homan said in a written statement.
Kerwin has raised $415,000 from major donors during the primary, he said. Of that total, $15,000 is from Texans United for a Conservative Majority, according to Texas Ethics Commission records. Kerwin also received nearly $500,000 in in-kind donations from Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign, according to her spokesperson.
“For the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to try and minimize the enormous and broad-based movement supporting Helen, and many other challenger races, by focusing on a donor or two misses the far larger picture of what is occurring all across Texas during this Republican primary and runoff season,” Homan said. “This is a movement that starts with the grassroots and is propelled by common sense, conservative leadership of President Donald Trump and Governor Greg Abbott.”
John McQueeney, who faces Cheryl Bean in a runoff for House District 97 in southwest Fort Worth, said several groups funded by Wilks and Dunn have been involved in the race, including Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and Texans United for a Conservative Majority.
“This group is known for demanding complete loyalty from their candidates and lying to try to destroy their opponents,” McQueeney said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Bean asked for written questions but did not respond to them.
Why are Dunn, Wilks involved in North Texas?
Stucky links the involvement of Wilks, Dunn and affiliated groups in North Texas to Ken Paxton’s impeachment vote in the House. Paxton, who is from Collin County and was cleared by the Texas Senate in his impeachment trial, has gotten $400,000 directly from Dunn and Wilks since January 2023.
“They are trying to retaliate against House members who recommended impeachment,” Stucky said.
Burns said their involvement is about control.
“They want power,” he said.
Of the 33 state candidates up for reelection this year and financially supported by Dunn, Wilks, Defend Texas Liberty of Texans United for a Conservative Majority, 18 won, eight are in a runoff and seven lost.
Political science experts say their involvement in North Texas likely comes down to the competitive districts in the area.
“Money goes to swing districts,” Riddlesperger said. “You don’t have to spend money on districts that you have securely. You’re not going to spend money on districts that you’re going to lose regardless of how much money you might invest.”
Primaries and their runoffs tend to draw the most committed, partisan voters.
So do Wilks-Dunn backed candidates win on May 28?
“It’s just a matter of who gets their voters out,” Riddlesperger said.
