And you wonder who ruined your State?

Greg Abbott’s entire career has been built in public service, sucking on the tit of the government—first as a Supreme Court Justice, then as Attorney General, and now as Governor. Over the course of his gubernatorial runs, he has raised a staggering $336 million.

A significant chunk of that money—$53 million—comes from just 10 billionaire donors who wrote single checks of $1 million or more. That includes $8.5 million originating from out-of-state donors in California and Nevada. Topping the donor list is Javaid Anwar of Midland Energy, whose contributions to only Abbott exceed $15 million. He deserves a dedicated post on his entire contributions.

Notably, these numbers leave out powerful groups whose donations only cross the million-dollar mark when added together. For instance, Texans for Lawsuit Reform gave Abbott $1.5 million over this period, but kept each individual check below $1 million. See The Trillionaire, Billionaires, and Millionaires Running the Texas GOP

Uncovering this data isn’t easy. The Texas Ethics Commission report for “Texans for Greg Abbott” contains over 73,000 pages and more than 1 million raw entries. Because the dataset is too massive to download in full, public access is limited to basic fields: contribution counts, report numbers, and dollar amounts.

Fueled by millionaires and billionaires, Abbott’s campaign machine relies on major wealthy donors to stay in power. Here are the 10 billionaire mega-donors who gave at least one $1 million donation:

Over his twelve-year tenure as Governor, Greg Abbott has consistently prioritized corporate recruitment, encouraging businesses to relocate to Texas. While these economic policies attracted major corporations, critics argue they have contributed to increased housing costs, traffic congestion, and a higher cost of living. Furthermore, the expansion of over 300 data centers—supported by massive tax incentives—has raised significant concerns regarding water usage and power grid stability.

As public concern over the environmental and infrastructural impacts of data centers grows, Governor Abbott has recently called for a moratorium and temporary guardrails on new construction. However, skepticism remains as to whether these measures reflect a genuine shift in policy or a temporary political response. Voters seeking long-term infrastructure stability and resource protection may question whether current leadership will maintain strict oversight following the election.

Abbott encouraged corporations to build data centers in Texas. He is responsible for their encroachment on our communities and now he is claiming he will put up guardrails for our protection. Abbott is 12 years too late. He had the opportunity to take action before he approved the data centers. He caused the problem he is trying to now fixed.

Just like the cost of auto, home, and health insurance, and education, and the electric grid, and property taxes. Don’t be an idiot. Abbott is the problem. He doesn’t have a leg to stand on. It’s time to roll him out of office.

Remember when an elephant urinated across the George R. Brown Convention Center floor during the Texas Republican Convention, as detailed in the Houston Chronicle report, “Texas GOP’s surprise elephant takes giant pee at convention”?

There is more to the story. Following that report, I reached out to our City Council member to inquire whether the Texas GOP and the elephant handler, Trunks & Humps, had submitted all required permits and paperwork to the Houston First Corporation—the entity that manages exhibits at the GRB. Their website’s “About” section states:

A local government corporation formed in 2011, Houston First’s responsibilities include the development of the destination brand strategy, promoting the city worldwide, driving tourism and convention business, operating numerous facilities, producing events that serve the community, collaborating with commercial and industry partners and much more.

City Councilwoman Sallie Alcorn’s staff received the following response from Houston First:

Please be advised that every facility license agreement issued by HFC requires that the event client “strictly comply with all applicable laws, ordinances, codes, and regulations”. Relatedly, we further include a statement that the event client “shall acquire any federal, state and/or municipal permits or licenses required for the event”.

An open records request was submitted to review the facility license agreement, emails, and related correspondence. Unbelievably, the records yielded no agreements, applications, or receipts for the $25,000 Governor Greg Abbott paid to Trunks & Humps. The file contained only a couple of brief emails between Abbott’s staffer, Grayson Freeman, and Brenda Wharry of Houston First Corporation. It seems impossible that this represents the full record required to bring a large, possibly dangerous, animal into a crowded facility.

Either someone provided inaccurate information to our Council member, or the response to the open records request was incomplete. Or maybe Houston First was doing a favor for Abbott which I would not doubt one bit. For those who haven’t seen the footage of the elephant at the convention, the video is linked below, along with the official open records response (which incurred a $1.50 fee).

More updates on this story will follow.