Texas Gov. Greg Abbott received an additional $4 million campaign donation from a prominent school voucher proponent just after the March primary elections, boosting his successful effort to toss out GOP House members who opposed his school choice plans, according to new state ethics reports filed on Monday.

The April 3 donation by TikTok investor Jeff Yass brings the Pennsylvania billionaire megadonor’s contributions to Abbott to more than $10 million since last fall. Yass previously donated $6 million in December, which Abbott described as the largest single donation in Texas campaign history.

Yass has donated more than $200 million in the last decade to federal and state candidates and to groups to promote school choice.

The mandatory campaign finance reports filed Monday by the Republican governor as well as by his campaign at the Texas Ethics Commission offer the first comprehensive look into Abbott’s money machine during two heated election cycles earlier this year.

Abbott and his campaign’s political action committee, Texans for Greg Abbott, were only required to file them in January and July because he wasn’t on the ballot.

An email requesting comment from Abbott’s campaign was not immediately answered early Tuesday. Staff at his Capitol office referred questions to the campaign.

Public education advocates have criticized Yass’ heavy-handed funding of Abbott’s campaign, saying that as an out-of-state activist he has too much influence.

Earlier this year, Yass, through a spokesman, provided a brief statement to The Dallas Morning News on his supporting school choice: “School spending has doubled in real terms over the last 30 years and results have gotten worse, particularly in urban districts. The time for choice and competition is now. I plan to support pro-school choice candidates in any state.”

The Monday reports show Abbott’s officeholder account, which received the Yass donations, spent nearly $12 million during the first six months of the year. Most of that was on travel, events and advertising. More than a quarter of that was spent on advertising, polling and consulting in April and May alone, according to Abbott’s 190-page officeholder report.

Throughout the primary and runoff season,10 mostly rural incumbent House Republicans were fighting off attacks from Abbott and his pro-voucher allies after the lawmakers repeatedly blocked legislation that would have created education savings accounts, or ESAs.

Proponents — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — argue that public schools in some areas of the state are failing, so parents need help paying for alternatives. The ESAs would allow for taxpayer money to be spent on private schools.

Opponents argue that private schools are unregulated and sometimes exclude students with special needs. They want public schools to be fully funded.

Many rural Republicans argue that ESAs would drain the funding from their schools — the largest employer in many rural counties — and hurt their communities, particularly because many of those areas don’t have private schools.

Before the March primary, Abbott and his campaign gave more than $6 million to House candidates, many of whom were challenging those incumbents. Then he donated another $2.3 million during the next two months for the May runoffs to defeat those who survived in March, according to earlier campaign reports.

Abbott’s well-funded victories in those contests appear to have given him the votes he needs to pass school choice during the next regular session, which starts in January 2025. His candidates must survive the general election in November.

The legislative effort to create the state’s first voucherlike program appears to be already underway.

On Tuesday, Texas House Public Education Committee Chair Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, scheduled a hearing on a range of issues, including the viability of ESAs, for Aug. 12 – the same week many major Texas districts start the new school year.

Meanwhile, the Abbott campaign PAC maintains a healthy war chest of more than $51 million as of June 30, according to the reports. The PAC received nearly $25 million in donations since January.

The political action committee’s 29,292-page report is brimming with donations of $1 and $2, although individual contributions of $110 or less that are not received electronically are not required to be itemized. Online donations must be listed individually even if they are under $1.

Aarón Torres contributed to this report.

The college football world collectively rejoiced on Monday afternoon, when the long-awaited and much-anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 video game was released.

Customers who paid a premium price of $99.99 for the deluxe edition of the game were granted early access, while others must wait until the official July 19 rosters to start a dynasty with their favorite team.

And while fans will be looking forward to playing with truly real players in the game for the first time ever, it appears that the rosters of multiple teams – including the Texas Longhorns – are not yet fully complete.

Upon the release of the game on Monday, multiple Texas players were missing from the game, with some of those omissions being a key part of the roster.

On offense, the roster was without starting right tackle Cameron Williams, freshman guard Nate Kibble, offensive lineman Malik Agbo, and offensive lineman Trevor Goosby, and tight end Spencer Shannon.

Meanwhile on the defensive side of the ball, the Horns were without starting defensive tackle Alfred Collins, linebacker Mo Blackwell, transfer defensive tackle Jermayne Lole, redshirt freshman defensive tackle Sydir Mitchell, freshman tackle Melvin Hills, and cornerbacks Santana Wilson and Warren Roberson.

On top of that, multiple players who did make it into the game, are misnumbered, such as safety Andrew Mukuba, who should be wearing No. 4 instead of No. 13, edge Trey Moore, who should wear No. 8 instead of No. 31, and defensive lineman Bill Norton, who should wear No. 15 instead of No. 44.

Of course, the Longhorns are not the only team in the country missing players off of the game, including standouts like Ole Miss linebacker Suntarine Perkins, Ohio State edge J.T. Tuimoloau, Miami cornerback Daryl Porter Jr., USC wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, just to name a few.

To replace these players, multiple randomly generated players were added to the game instead, making for a more unauthentic experience.

To make things even more frustrating for players of the game, there is no way to edit the appearance or numbers of the randomly generated players, so they can not be turned into those that are missing. However, this is also understandable as it is likely due to legalities.

So why the omissions? Thus far with each individual case, it is unclear. However, there are likely a variety of factors at play.

Some players may have opted out, while others have yet to officially be added to team rosters, or had issues with the process of being added to the game in some capacity.

That said, all is not lost.

Fortunately, unlike in previous editions of the game a decade ago, EA has the ability to update the game’s rosters, meaning more players should be added throughout the summer before the start of the season.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man who has long sought DNA testing claiming it would help prove he was not responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman decades ago was scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening.

Ruben Gutierrez was condemned for the 1998 killing of Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville in Texas’ southern tip. Prosecutors said the killing of the mobile home park manager and retired teacher was part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 she had hidden in her home because of a mistrust of banks.

The inmate’s lethal injection was planned for Tuesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Gutierrez, 47, has long maintained he didn’t kill Harrison. His attorneys say there’s no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. Two others were also charged in the case.

Gutierrez’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, arguing Texas has denied his right under state law to post-conviction DNA testing that would show he would not have been eligible for the death penalty.

His attorneys argue that various items recovered from the crime scene — including nail scrapings from Harrison, a loose hair wrapped around one of her fingers and various blood samples from within her home — have never been tested.

“Gutierrez faces not only the denial of (DNA testing) that he has repeatedly and consistently sought for over a decade, but moreover, execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has any interest in a wrongful execution,” Gutierrez’s attorneys wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a delay tactic and that Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery and that he was inside her home when she was killed. Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ law of parties, which says a person can be held liable for the actions of others if they assist or encourage the commission of a crime.

In their response to Gutierrez’s Supreme Court petition, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said state law does not provide “for postconviction DNA testing to show innocence of the death penalty and, even if it did, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”

“He has repeatedly failed to show he is entitled to postconviction DNA testing. Thus, his punishment is just, and his execution will be constitutional,” prosecutors said.

Gutierrez’s lawyers have also argued that his case is similar to another Texas death row inmate — Rodney Reed — whose case was sent back to a lower court after the Supreme Court in 2023 ruled he should be allowed to argue for DNA testing. Reed is still seeking DNA testing.

Lower courts have previously denied Gutierrez’s requests for DNA testing.

Last week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commuting Gutierrez’s death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a 90-day reprieve.

Gutierrez has had several previous execution dates in recent years that have been delayed, including over issues related to having a spiritual adviser in the death chamber. In June 2020, Gutierrez was about an hour away from execution when he got a stay from the Supreme Court.

Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison hid her money underneath a false floor in her bedroom closet.

Police charged three people in this case: Rene Garcia, Pedro Gracia and Gutierrez. Rene Garcia is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison while Pedro Gracia, who police said was the getaway driver, remains at large.

Gutierrez would be the third inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, and the 10th in the U.S.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70