Billionaire socialist George Soros donated $1 million dollars to the gubernatorial campaign of Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke the day before the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health came down. The contribution to O’Rourke’s political action committee, Beto for Texas, was confirmed by the Texas Ethics Commission on Tuesday. O’Rourke’s campaign also confirmed the donation.
Soros was upset about the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs. He said that the court’s decision “diminishes human rights.” He wants to strike back at Texas’ trigger law that goes into effect a month after the ruling came down.
“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn #RoeVWade ends federal protections for abortion, diminishes human rights, and greatly threatens reproductive care,” Soros wrote in his tweet. “We have invested in reproductive rights organizations that are fighting back at this moment.”
The O’Rourke campaign is flush with campaign contributions. Its latest campaign finance report is so huge it took several days to upload to the Texas Ethics Commission website. An Austin area couple also gave O’Rourke a million-dollar contribution.
While Texans gave $14.5 million to the Democrat’s campaign, nearly half of O’Rourke’s record-breaking $27.6 million fundraising haul came from out-of-state donors.
O’Rourke is one of the few Democrats this election cycle to benefit from the state’s wide-open campaign finance rules that put no limit on contributions. He received several six- and seven-figure checks that are usually collected only by the state’s top Republican leaders, such as Abbott.
In addition to Soros, O’Rourke received $1 million each from Tench and Simone Coxe, a high-powered Silicon Valley couple who moved to Austin last year. He’s a former GOP donor and venture capitalist, while she co-founded public relations firm Blanc & Otus. Late last year, the Coxes put $100,000 into O’Rourke’s nascent gubernatorial campaign.
The majority of donations to O’Rourke are small ones. Seven of his donations were $100,000 or more. In contrast, 62 of Greg Abbott’s top donors each gave six-figure contributions that accounted for more than half of his $25 million total contributions. It probably won’t be a surprise that another big check for Robert Francis came from the American Federation of Teachers PAC.
An oilman in Midland was Abbott’s top contributor.
Abbott’s top contributor was Midland oilman S. Javaid Anwar, a prolific GOP donor who has given the governor’s campaign nearly $870,000 since February. Twice, Abbott has appointed Anwar to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Several others contributed $500,000 apiece, including Dallas telecom billionaire Kenny Troutt, California real estate billionaire Edward Roski Jr., Houston road contractor James “Doug” Pitcock Jr., and Houston Rockets owner and restaurateur Tilman Fertitta.
George Soros has been contributing big bucks to political campaigns in Texas to promote his social justice agenda. Thanks to his support of progressive DAs, big Texas cities are feeling the effects of a rise in crime, same as other large urban areas where criminals are allowed to get back out on the streets instead of being held on appropriately high bonds. Soros and his ilk would like to abolish bail and defund the police. That is their idea of criminal justice reform.
Abbott’s campaign wasted no time launching an 18-second digital ad. Cue the creepy, ominous music. “One million dollars.”
Abbott’s campaign quickly took aim at the check from Soros, a billionaire philanthropist who’s become a boogeyman to staunch conservatives. Soros’ Open Society Foundations has given away $18 billion on six continents to improve criminal justice, education and public health and promote independent news media.
“It’s no surprise Beto O’Rourke received a $1 million campaign contribution from billionaire George Soros, liberal Democrats’ favorite check writer, given they both support defunding our police, open borders and radical energy policies,” Abbott campaign spokesman Mark Miner said in a written statement.
The largest group of Beto’s supporters are teachers, according to his campaign. Shocker, I know. All that union dues money paying for political contributions makes an impression, right? It is telling that Beto has to rely on out-of-state contributions. The coastal elites still sign checks for him, still hopeful that this time Texas will turn blue statewide. Of O’Rourke’s total contributions, 52.5% came from in-state residents. For Abbott, that number is nearly 86%.
A University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs poll released last week showed that O’Rourke is trailing Abbott by 5 points. A larger percentage of Beto’s supporters say they are open to changing their minds than Abbott’s.
The poll also found that 5 percent of Abbott supporters and 8 percent of O’Rourke supporters said they would consider changing their vote for November’s election.
Respondents to the poll cited inflation, public safety concerns, government spending and taxes, health care costs, and economic growth as important issues in making their choice in the gubernatorial race.
Hmm. That list of voter concerns tracks pretty well with national polls for voters. I don’t see abortion on that list, though, do you? As for public safety concerns, voters can thank Soros for contributing to crime and lawlessness in communities across Texas and the country.
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