AUSTIN, Texas – This Week in Texas Politics involved a lot of digging in, indicating that it may be a very long and hot summer here in Texas.

FOX 7 Austin’s Rudy Koski and our panel of political analysts discuss.

RUDY KOSKI: Let’s get our headlines this week, and we’ll start first with Brad Johnson with the Texas News. Brad, what’s your headline?

BRAD JOHNSON: The GOP circular firing squad takes San Antonio.  

RUDY KOSKI: Annie Spilman with Main Street Relations. What’s your headline?  

ANNIE SPILMAN: Unlike other states, Texas lags behind in toll discounts.  

RUDY KOSKI: Political analyst Mark Wiggins: your headline for the week.  

MARK WIGGINS: The Convention of Chaos.

Texans concerned about economy, immigration: poll

RUDY KOSKI: Early voting in the primary runoffs wrapping up this week with all eyes focused on the race involving House Speaker Dade Phelan. Brad, a lot of money is being pumped into this one. Are you surprised?  

BRAD JOHNSON: I’ve heard that it’s possible we’ll see upwards of $12 million spent on both sides of it, including all, you know, outside groups.  

ANNIE SPILMAN: I mean, it was a good session for business groups. There was a lot of regulatory relief that happened under the leadership of Speaker Phelan. He got a big get-out-the-vote rally with former Governor Rick Perry, who was very business friendly. Still is.

RUDY KOSKI: Well, certainly that race is a big topic statewide and also a big topic at the Republican state convention that is underway this week. And, you know, there’s a lot of obsession over the House Speaker. It seems like that that’s the main topic, going on down there. And there’s nothing else. But there is a lot more. Right, Mark?  

MARK WIGGINS: Under the current leadership, you know, the RPT has lost staff. It’s lost funding. And quite frankly, it’s lost relevance. I mean, especially when it’s spending money attacking other Republicans. So if Republicans are going to continue to be successful in the state, especially in those down ballot races, they’re going to have to start growing the party instead of purging it.

MORE: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz files bill to protect IVF

RUDY KOSKI: The Texas Democrats have been throwing a lot of shade at the Texas Republicans in the convention. But, you know, they’re involved in their own meltdown, too. And so, while those parties are trying to figure out who they are, the Texas Lyceum poll came out this week with a poll and a survey saying Texans are more focused on the economy. And I know that business groups there really have been screaming a lot lately in regard to, it’s about the economy, it’s about the inflation. Do something.  

ANNIE SPILMAN: The poll really pointed to economic anxiety, and inflation has increased the cost of pretty much everything in the state of Texas. Anxiety and uncertainty can really cripple our local businesses and its impact on our community.  

RUDY KOSKI: Hard liners digging in, is just not a Republican thing. Six Texas Congressional Democrats voting on Capitol Hill against a House resolution to ban non-citizens from voting in DC elections. Greg Casar, Lloyd Doggett among those now on record supporting the idea. Non-citizens participating in a local election. Mark that may not hurt them with their base, but that isn’t really good for the overall party, right?  

MARK WIGGINS: Well, you just got to look back to that same Lyceum poll and many, many polls beforehand. Rudy, the border remains a top issue for Texans, and that doesn’t matter what party you’re in or how close you live to the Rio Grande. If I’m consulting Democrats, I’m going to tell them you need to have a strong position on that issue.

RUDY KOSKI: The Texas Lyceum poll also showed that Donald Trump has a ten-point lead here in Texas. So, Ted Cruz, while he was in state, Trump being in state last week, and he’s coming back next week, several Texas Republicans went up to New York for the last day of Trump’s hush money trial. Brad, is that just political coat tailing or is there a real strong purpose for that?  

BRAD JOHNSON: I think it’s more of them, you know, showing their support for the president. In the current situation, going forward, that will be returned again, I’m sure.  

MARK WIGGINS: You know, I think as more people start to think Trump may win this thing, you’re going to see more of them do what is required to get into his good graces. 

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RUDY KOSKI: As for the border battle, Gov. Greg Abbott on social media this week has been providing updates on the new base camp that’s being built along the Rio Grande and the border wall construction. Annie, is this, the governor just simply saying “Come and Take it?”

ANNIE SPILMAN: Well, I don’t know how many of you remember MTV Cribs, but this reminds me of one of those episodes with the governor welcoming the president virtually, into his view, aerial view, of the forward operating base in Eagle Pass. He’s definitely flaunting his Texas-built base camp and challenging the feds to come and take it.  

RUDY KOSKI: Well, Texas and the feds fighting: That’s certainly nothing new, but this week, Ken Paxton teamed up with the Biden administration DOJ and a lawsuit against LiveNation, the parent company of Ticketmaster. Brad, should we be checking the temperature and hell, what’s going on?  

BRAD JOHNSON: This Ken Paxton and Taylor Swift uniting together? I don’t know. You know, one thing that caught my eye with this, the release from the attorney general he was touting. It’s the 75th lawsuit against the Biden administration. That marketing just goes perfectly for him. And obviously, he’s taken advantage of it. That’s the big takeaway, I thought.  

MORE THIS WEEK IN TEXAS POLITICS

RUDY KOSKI: All right, let’s end it there. And we’re going to wrap up this week with one word. And we’ll start first with Mark. Mark, your word.  

MARK WIGGINS: Chaos.  

ANNIE SPILMAN: Graduation.  

BRAD JOHNSON: Circus.  

RUDY KOSKI: And with that, we’re wrapping up another Week in Texas Politics.

Early voting in the May 28 Texas primary runoffs ends today. One of the highest-profile contests in the state is the Republican runoff in House District 21 between Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan and former Orange County GOP chairman David Covey. The race could prove the most expensive state legislative contest in Texas history.

Monday night, former Governor Rick Perry introduced Speaker Phelan to a capacity crowd at Courville’s, a Cajun restaurant and catering venue just off US-90 in Beaumont. One of the first things Phelan did as he took the stage was to apologize to his family.

“I apologize for your mailboxes,” Phelan said. “I apologize for what you’ve seen on TV. The lies, the lies, the lies are unimaginable. We’ve never seen anything like it in the history of Southeast Texas.”

Andrew Schneider

Phelan was referring to the political attack ads directed at him. He’s running for his sixth term in the Texas House and claimed the money spent on House District 21 is breaking state records. It’s certainly having an outsized impact in the district, a three-county region along the Louisiana border that’s also known as “the Golden Triangle.”

“I’ll remind you, when you buy $100,000 in TV in Beaumont, it’s like buying $500,000 in Houston,” he said.

And the money is not just going into TV commercials. It’s paying for social media campaigns and mailers, including one with a doctored photo showing Phelan hugging the former U.S. Speaker of the House, and Democrat, Nancy Pelosi. Phelan said much of the money comes from a handful of very wealthy individuals supporting his opponent, David Covey, who has never run for state office before.

“Here we are in a runoff,” Phelan said, “because he has taken money from two West Texas billionaires, and now some guy from Pennsylvania, who I’ve never heard of until the last six weeks, who just came in and spent millions of dollars against me.”

Covey’s Donors

Phelan didn’t name them, but he was talking specifically about two conservative oil executives from the Midland area, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, along with Pennsylvania tech investor Jeff Yass. All three have been pouring millions of dollars into efforts to defeat politicians who have opposed school choice.

Yass is one of the largest contributors to the Club for Growth, a conservative 501 nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. The Club has spent nearly $1.8 million on advertising to defeat Phelan who’s been accused of blocking school vouchers. They also blame the House Speaker for giving away power to Democrats.

“Basically, we don’t feel you can call yourself a conservative if you oppose school freedom,” said David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth and a former Indiana congressman. “I think it’s an important symbolic victory if Mr. Covey wins, and the reason would be, it basically sends a signal to other Republicans: You don’t want to try to get power in this fashion.”

This fashion, meaning by giving some House committee chairs to Democrats. It’s a traditional power-sharing arrangement in the Texas Legislature that’s fallen sharply out of favor with conservative Republicans. Many blame the process for preventing the passage of school choice, among other priorities.

According to campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, since July of last year, oil executive Tim Dunn has donated just over $8.6 million to a pair of political action committees, Defend Texas Liberty and Texans United for a Conservative Majority, either directly or through an entity known as Hexagon Partners. Oil executive Farris Wilks donated about $2.8 million over the same period.

Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks provided virtually all the donations to Defend Texas Liberty and Texans United for a Conservative Majority over the current cycle. Those two PACs in turn donated $800,000 to David Covey’s campaign. Covey received another $700,000 directly in donations from a third Texas billionaire, insurance broker Alex Fairly of Amarillo. Neither Dunn, Wilks, nor Fairly responded to requests for interviews. For context, Covey’s campaign has raised just over $2.5 million since July of last year, and more than three out of every five dollars came from three men.

“Texas has no campaign finance limits whatsoever,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas. “So, if you’re a billionaire, and you want to throw millions of dollars into the political system to change who’s in office, you can do that.”

Gutierrez, who studies campaign finance, is convinced that the Phelan-Covey race could easily be the most expensive race for a State House district in Texas history, though he said no one will know for certain until the Texas Ethics Commission publishes the final campaign finance reports of the cycle in July.

Asked about the potential influence of these three men, David Covey told Houston Public Media, “Dade Phelan has raised more money from out-of-state donors than the total amount of money I have raised. The amount of money Phelan received from outside of the district is greater than 5 times the amount of money I raised.”

Phelan’s Contributors

Covey’s claim isn’t without merit, and it speaks to an important point about the influence of money in a region like the Golden Triangle.

“Generally, money is probably the most important factor in any political campaign,” said political consultant Bill Miller, whose firm, Austin-based HillCo Partners, has donated to Phelan’s campaign. “I think there’s so much money that’s been raised, and is being raised, that money is irrelevant. And there’s very few races where you can say that. But this race — because it’s a small area, and there’s so much money — I don’t think that either side will want for money to do whatever it is that they believe will help them win the race.”

Campaign finance records show Phelan has raised more than $9.4 million this cycle. The largest individual donor to Phelan by far is Miriam Adelson, widow of Sheldon Adelson and owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Adelson’s company is one of the main forces pushing to legalize casino gambling in Texas.

Adelson donated more than $13 million to a pair of political action committees, Texas Defense and Texas Sands. Those two PACS in turn donated more than $800,000 to Phelan. Adelson also donated another $100,000 to Phelan’s campaign directly. Altogether, she’s supplied 1 dollar out of every 10 Phelan has collected. More than half of that money came in the critical two months following Phelan’s second-place finish in the first round of primary voting.

Phelan’s next biggest contributor is the Associated Republicans of Texas Campaign Fund. The fund’s parent body, the Associated Republicans of Texas, bills itself as a non-profit dedicated to maintaining a Republican majority in the Texas Legislature. The group has raised $7.5 million since last July. One of its biggest benefactors is Houston-based John L. Nau III, the chairman and CEO of Silver Eagle Beverages, one of the nation’s largest Anheuser-Busch distributors. Nau, who co-chairs the Associated Republicans’ board of directors, gave the organization $2.1 million over the past ten months.

Phelan has received just over $238,000 from the Associated Republicans of Texas Campaign Fund. That’s only 3% of the group’s total fundraising over the current cycle, but virtually all of it followed Phelan’s second-place finish to Covey in the first round of primary voting in March, making it a crucial lifeline.

What comes next?

It’s far from normal to see so many millions of dollars in campaign donations flowing through this district. The last time Phelan fought a competitive race was his first legislative contest back in 2014. In that cycle, he raised just 2% of what he raised for this primary. So, I asked Phelan whether it’s time for tougher state campaign finance rules.

“It’s less of a finance issue than some of the campaign graphics and some of the images and some of the voiceovers that are obviously not realistic,” Phelan said. “They’re not accurate. And they’re obviously deep fakes. And AI, as it gets more and more refined, is very problematic in campaigns. We saw it in my campaign. We’re seeing it in other campaigns across the state of Texas. It’s a misdemeanor right now, and I don’t think that’s strong enough at all.”

Whether any such legislation comes to pass hangs on the outcome of this race: if Phelan loses, campaign finance limits will fall on whoever succeeds him as Speaker of the House.

Regarding the broader question of campaign finance regulation, Phelan is more philosophical, as someone who’s in the lead when it comes to fundraising can afford to be.

“It’s a First Amendment right to spend your money,” he said. “I get it. And I don’t know how the state of Texas will address that and still be under the constitutional standards that we expect from free speech.”

Groups in Uvalde and throughout Texas have created memorials to honor victims who died in the Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24, 2022.

Friday marks two years since the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen students and two teachers were murdered in what the U.S. Justice Department described as top-to-bottom “cascading failures” by law enforcement that combined to make the shooting one of the worst in history. 

As the families involved and the community reflect, people find ways to grieve. Many choose to use art.

Over the past two years, groups in Uvalde and throughout Texas have created memorials to honor those victims.

21 Uvalde murals of Robb Elementary victims

Abel Ortiz Acosta, a resident and educator in Uvalde, collaborated with Monica Maldonado, the founder of the Austin-based nonprofit MAS Cultura, to organize a three-month project incorporating storytelling into artwork. Together, they created 21 murals for the Healing Uvalde project, each commemorating a victim of the Robb Elementary shooting by telling their story.

“We know that art heals,” Maldonado told the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network. “We wanted to use that to help this community heal but also show solidarity and be in unity with Uvalde. There is no doubt in my mind that this is part of their healing journey, and for many families we hope this lets them know that their kids and teachers matter and they won’t be forgotten.”

(Click menu icon at top left of map to see full list of murals)

Crosses memorialize victims of Uvalde school shooting

Shortly after the May 2022 shooting, makeshift memorials were placed at Uvalde’s town square and Robb Elementary School.

At the school are 22 crosses for each of the victims and Joe Garcia, the husband of slain teacher Irma Garcia, who died of a heart attack shortly after the shooting.

Crosses with messages, photos, flowers and other keepsakes still sit around the fountain at the town square.

Uvalde Love Project creates hand-crafted mosaic mural

The Uvalde Love Project was founded by Austin art therapist Wanda Montemayor, fellow Austin art therapists and teachers from Uvalde. The project was designed to bring the healing community closer together after the tragedy, in what Montemayor and her team hoped would aid in the grieving process. Thousands of volunteers contributed handmade tiles to the project.

“That personal connection and that feeling of safety is where the healing begins, and it’s the collectiveness,” Montemayor told the American-Statesman. “It’s not that ‘I’m alone in these feelings.’ It’s like ‘I’m with you and you and you, and we’re on the same feeling together’… not being alone in your head with these feelings.” 

21 benches made for victims of Robb Elementary School shooting

Georgia native Sean Peacock went through his own personal tragedies and found a way to grieve his loss after losing his sister. To honor the children who were killed in Uvalde, Peacock carved butterfly-shaped benches for the families of the victims, each featuring a child’s image.

According to 41NBC/WMGT, Peacock took a U-Haul to Texas to hand deliver the benches to families.

A memorial built for Uvalde more than 200 miles away

In Riviera, Texas, Lupe Aguilar — a pastor of Community Baptist Church — built a wall dedicated to the victims of Uvalde. Aguilar has no formal connection to Uvalde. 

“It can happen in any community,” Aguilar told KENS 5. “In my mind, in my heart, I had a feeling something needed to be done. Something needed to be built for the children, in memory of the children in Uvalde and their parents.”

Contributing: Hannah Ortega