Texans donated $400,000 to Moore
About $400,000 left Lone Star State for his campaign
No state played a bigger financial role in trying to elect Roy Moore to the Senate outside of Alabama than Texas, but Texas Democrats also rallied behind Doug Jones by giving $300,000.
AUSTIN — No state played a bigger financial role in trying to elect Roy Moore to the U.S. Senate outside of Alabama than Texas.
Individual campaign donors from Texas combined to give the failed Republican nominee nearly as much money as contributors in California, New York and Florida combined. Texans were responsible for just over $400,000 in donations through the end of November, according to the latest campaign finance disclosure reports. Those numbers are sure to climb as donations over the last two weeks are tallied by the campaign.
While the Republicans who rallied to help Moore were disappointed with the outcome, Democrats were delighted at their own financial response to Alabama where more than $300,000 from Texas went to help Democrat Doug Jones. They believe the Republican defeat will create momentum for Democrats in Texas and nationwide going into the 2018 campaign.
“We saw an opportunity,” said Missouri City resident Mark Kahn, who had never contributed to a Senate race before donating $2,700 to Jones’ campaign.
Some Texas Republicans had been backing Moore for
months. Among the biggest Texas donors to Moore:
• Lee Roy Mitchell, founder of the Cinemark USA movie theater chain from Dallas.
• Physician and conservative activist Lawrence Gelman from McAllen.
• Same-sex marriage opponent and conservative activist Steven Hotze and his wife Janie Hotze from the Houston area.
All four gave at least $8,100 each to Moore’s campaign.
Hotze also used a new political action committee he created in June called Restore Our Godly Heritage PAC, to help Moore. That PAC has spent at least $91,000 on radio ads and other unspecified “ad productions.”
At a speech in Alabama last month in support of Moore, Hotze said he was backing the former judge because he is “unswerving in his principles to uphold the Constitution and his Christian values.”
Jones’ top Texas donors included Dallas heiress Patricia Walker and New Braunfels resident William Holliday. Both gave over $3,100 to Jones. University of Texas professor Mona Mehdy of Austin and Edward Lam, a Grapevine accountant for Exeter Finance each gave just over $2,700 to round out Jones’ top four.
Kahn, a venture capitalist, said he felt the Alabama race offered a great chance to demonstrate his opposition to President Donald Trump.
“It just makes life harder for the president,” Kahn said, relishing Tuesday’s results. Trouble for Cruz?
El Paso Democrat Beto O’Rourke, emboldened by the Alabama results was quick to reach out to his supporters Tuesday night to present himself as the next big upset candidate.
“If you weren’t sure if our campaign to take on Ted Cruz was possible, you have to know it is now,” O’Rourke’s campaign said in a fundraising email minutes after Jones was declared the winner in Alabama. “Next stop, Texas 2018.”
O’Rourke’s campaign was quick to point out that Trump carried Texas by 9 percentage points, while he carried Alabama by 28 percentage points. If Alabama can produce such an upset, so too can Texas, according to the campaign’s logic.
“The blue wave that is sweeping the nation has reached the South,” said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa.
Some Texas Democrats took to Twitter to express their approval of Alabama’s results.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, wrote simply: “Trump is toxic.”
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, wrote: “Good has prevailed and our country is on the way to a new day.”
Texas Republicans were largely quiet on the Alabama results.
“Our focus has been and will be on winning Texas elections,” Republican Party of Texas chairman James Dickey said. “We have strong candidates in every contested race, and we are more grateful than ever that we live in the great state of Texas.”
Cruz, who endorsed Moore earlier in the campaign but pulled that support later as allegations of sexual misconduct mounted against Moore, also had little to say on the results. Cruz made no mention of the race on social media, and his campaign did not respond to a request for comment as of late Wednesday. But Cruz did react to another race. Three times in the last two days, Cruz retweeted posts about his former chief of staff Chip Roy, who is running for a San Antonio-based seat in Congress in 2018.
But while Cruz and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn both rescinded their support for Moore, other Texas Republicans kept fighting for Moore to the end. In the closing days, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Tyler Republican, went to Alabama to help campaign for Moore. Donations to Strange
“Roy invited me out to this rally tonight. I met him many years ago. I know the kind of difference a man of principle can make. He’s no racist; and, he’s dedicated his life to making America a better place, yet (is) being tried in the media,” Gohmert said in a statement to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
Some Texas donors early on tried to keep Moore from the nomination and gave to other Republicans in the race, like U.S. Sen. Luther Strange.
Just over $100,000 from Texans went to Strange’s campaign. His top Texas donor was Ross Perot Jr., president and CEO of Hillwood Investment Properties of Dallas. Perot gave $8,100 to the Strange campaign. Ray L. Hunt, chairman of Hunt Consolidated in Dallas, was the next biggest Lone Star State donor, giving $5,400 to Strange.