AUSTIN — The big donors sent their checks. Many came in person.
Wealthy campaign contributors and even corporations — the latter of which took advantage of the rare opportunity to give directly to a state politician — underwrote the inaugurations of Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Tuesday.
Just the 81 donors listed in the inaugural program alone contributed almost $3.73 million toward the costs of staging Tuesday’s celebration.
It included the oath-taking ceremony, a Taste of Texas food extravaganza on the Capitol grounds and a three-band combination dance and concert at the Moody Theater, where the PBS program Austin City Limits is taped, late Tuesday.
While The Dallas Morning News requested a list of contributors from the Texas 2023 Inaugural Committee, none was forthcoming.
According to the program, the Diamond Sponsors who gave $100,000, netting them six tickets to Monday night’s Inaugural Appreciation Dinner and eight to Tuesday’s night’s separate, VIP shindig at the posh Four Seasons Hotel Austin, included
- Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, whose chief executive Kelcy Warren is one of Abbott’s mega donors
- Dallas-based AT&T
- Dallas-based Ryan LLC, the global tax services firm headed by G. Brint Ryan
- Three gambling interests — Sands, Landry’s and slot-machine company IGT
- San Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B, which is opening stores in North Texas
- Four road or railyard building-related firms — Cintra, Colorado Materials Ltd., Williams Brothers Construction and TGS — along with the Associated General Contractors of Texas
- Other energy moguls and companies, such as Walter Oil & Gas Co. co-owner Carole Walter Looke of Houston and Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy, plus the Texas Oil and Gas Association
This year, proponents of expanded gambling are hoping to finally break through and win from the Legislature and Abbott legalization of casinos and sports betting. It would require a constitutional amendment, approved by voters, probably in an election this fall.
Penn Entertainment, with interests in regional casinos and resorts, as well as sports betting, gave $50,000 to the Texas 2023 Inaugural Committee. PrizePicks, which offers daily fantasy sports contests, contributed $25,000.
Corporations are typically prohibited from making contributions to Texas candidates, but inaugural fundraising falls outside the state’s campaign finance code.
The Gold Sponsors (who gave $50,000 and got six tickets to the exclusive Four Seasons event) and Silver Sponsors ($25,000 and four tickets) included health care providers and insurers, banks, utilities such as Vistra and Oncor, defense contractors, tech companies, wine and beer interests, car dealers, title company owners and physicians.
North Texas residents in the Gold category were Tara and Cody Campbell of Fort Worth. Last year, he and co-founder John Sellers sold their DoublePoint Energy of Midland to Pioneer Natural Resources (which also chipped in $50,000) for $6.4 billion, according to Forbes.
In the Silver cohort were Dallasites Fallon and Robie Vaughn — Robie Vaughn runs a private equity firm and has managed an oil-royalty company — and textiles manufacturer and cotton trader Arun Agarwal, who is president of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board.
