History, politics, memory, and commentary from a Tejano point of view.
Does money buy influence in Texas? It seems that way; you be the judge – Greg Abbott
August 17, 2026
Data centers — Abbott reversal: Promoted Texas as the “epicenter of AI development,” then moved toward restrictions, audits, setbacks, and noise controls after rural opposition grew.
Data-center donors: Major Abbott contributors with data-center, energy, or infrastructure interests included:
Ed Roski Jr. — $1 million
Kelcy Warren — $500,000
Rhett Bennett — $500,000
Elon Musk — $500,000
Harlan Crow — $250,000
Ray Lee Hunt — $125,000
Mackie McCrea — $100,000
Data-center lobbyists: Three former Abbott chiefs of staff have lobbied for companies involved in the data-center industry.
Texas electricity demand: ERCOT reported roughly 474 GW of large-load requests, about 90% from data centers, versus an existing Texas peak load of about 85 GW.
Data-center tax breaks: Texas’s 2013 exemption, enacted before Abbott became governor, was initially projected to cost about $14.6 million; projected losses have grown into the billions.
Winter Storm Uri donors: After the 2021 freeze and legislative session, Abbott received about $4.6 million from oil, gas, and energy interests.
Kelcy Warren — $1 million
Energy Transfer reportedly made about $2.4 billion during the freeze.
ERCOT accountability: Abbott appoints the Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT, and his office became closely involved in selecting ERCOT leadership.
“The lights will stay on”: Abbott assured Texans after the 2021 reforms that the lights would stay on, then later acknowledged there could be no guarantee against outages.
Jeff Yass and vouchers: Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass gave Abbott at least $10 million while Abbott was campaigning for school vouchers.
First major contribution — $6 million
Later contribution — $4 million
Defeating Republican voucher opponents: Abbott spent more than $8 million supporting primary challengers against Republican legislators who opposed vouchers.
School funding as leverage: During the 2023 voucher fight, Abbott tied teacher raises and additional public-school funding to passage of vouchers.
Voucher law: Abbott signed the roughly $1 billion education-savings-account program in 2025.
Operation Lone Star: Texas committed more than $11 billion by 2024, with later appropriations pushing total border-security spending toward $18 billion.
Federal reimbursement: After spending billions on Operation Lone Star, Abbott asked the federal government to reimburse Texas for more than $10 billion in eligible border-security costs.
National Guard deaths: At least 10 Texas Guard members linked to Operation Lone Star had died by October 2022, including suspected suicides, accidents, and a drowning.
Rio Grande buoys: Abbott installed the floating border barrier without the federal permit the Justice Department said was required; litigation followed.
Trump’s five congressional seats: Abbott called a special-session redistricting effort that produced a map intended to give Republicans an opportunity to gain five U.S. House seats.
Uvalde: Abbott initially repeated and praised an inaccurate account of the police response, then said two days later that he had been “misled.”
Daniel Perry pardon: Abbott pushed for expedited clemency review immediately after Perry’s murder conviction and later granted him a full pardon after the Abbott-appointed parole board recommended it.
Foster-care system: Federal Judge Janis Jack repeatedly held Texas agencies in contempt over failures to protect foster children during Abbott’s governorship; the Fifth Circuit later removed her from the case over aspects of her oversight.
Abortion and maternal health: Texas imposed severe abortion restrictions under Abbott; subsequent hospital-data analyses found increases in pregnancy-related sepsis and deaths after the restrictions took effect.
Hill Country flood warnings: Kerr County unsuccessfully sought funding for flood-warning infrastructure before the deadly 2025 floods; both state and local failures are part of the record.
Texas border wall: Texas spent more than $3 billion while completing only about 8% of the roughly 805 miles identified for construction before lawmakers stopped funding new sections.
Abbott donor’s ranch: Major Abbott donor and UT regent Stuart Stedman received about $1.5 million from Texas for an agreement allowing roughly five miles of border wall across his ranch.
Stuart Stedman — major Abbott contributor and Abbott-appointed UT regent
State payment/agreement — about $1.5 million
6,500 “noncitizens”: Abbott announced that Texas had removed 6,500 noncitizens from voter rolls, then changed the wording to “potential noncitizens.” Investigators later identified U.S. citizens caught in the process.
Musk records: Abbott’s office resisted disclosure of communications with Elon Musk and his companies; when roughly 1,400 pages were released, most were heavily or completely redacted.
Elon Musk contribution to Abbott — $500,000
Donors and appointments: Investigations have documented large Abbott contributors receiving appointments to state boards and university governing bodies, including the Texas Tech and Texas A&M systems.
Texas Tech: eight of ten Abbott-appointed regents had contributed more than $30,000
Several contributed more than $165,000
Texas A&M regents also include Abbott donors who have contributed hundreds of thousands or millions.
Campus free speech: Abbott signed a law protecting campus free speech, then supported arrests and called for expulsions during pro-Palestinian demonstrations at UT-Austin; prosecutors later dropped large numbers of the resulting cases.
Migrant buses: Texas spent more than $148 million transporting more than 102,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities.
Legislative employees’ pay: Abbott vetoed legislative-branch funding during the 2021 Democratic quorum break, threatening the pay of roughly 2,100 legislative employees.
Harris County elections: Abbott signed laws abolishing Harris County’s elections-administrator position and expanding state oversight under provisions initially applying only to Harris County.
