MIDLAND, TEXAS — Some of Texas’ top Republican donors are expected to get behind Ron DeSantis tonight, as he begins a three-day fundraising trip in the Lone Star State. It’s his first visit to Texas since announcing his presidential run.
Florida’s governor will visit Midland today, attend fundraisers in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston on Thursday – and then wrap up his tour in Austin and the Woodlands on Friday.
OIL TYCOONS AND BILLIONAIRES
According to The Texas Tribune, Nikki Haley will also make stops in Midland, Houston and Dallas around the same time as DeSantis. The lavish events are already drawing some of the most prolific GOP donors.
But in a sign that some major donors are still keeping their options open, a few have lent their names to fundraisers for both candidates. In Midland, oil mogul Javaid Anwar – the single largest donor to Texas Governor Greg Abbot – will host events for both DeSantis and Haley.
Host committee members for DeSantis in Midland include many other titans in the oil industry, including Ernest Angelo, Douglas Scharbauer and Kyle Stallings.
Oklahoma oil tycoon Harold Hamm, car-auction billionaire Jay Adair and telecommunications billionaire Kenny Troutt will host DeSantis in Dallas. Also included on the Dallas list is businessman Phillip Huffines, brother of Don Huffines who challenged Abbott in the 2022 primary.
In Houston, commercial real-estate developers Alan Hassenflu and Richard Weekley – leaders of Texans for Lawsuit Reform – will host DeSantis along with Clive Fields, a Houston doctor who donated $500,000 to DeSantis’ Florida political committee in March.
Some of the hosts now backing DeSantis gave at least six figures to Trump’s 2020 re-election effort. Troutt and his wife contributed at least $1.8 million and Hamm backed Trump in 2016 and 2020 when the former president considered appointing him energy secretary.
Event tickets start at $3,300 per person and spike at $13,200 per couple. Donations go toward both the primary and general elections.
