The chairman of San Antonio-based grocery big H-E-B has funneled greater than $1 million into the campaigns of anti-school voucher Republicans that Gov. Greg Abbott is working to unseat, Hearst Texas authorities reporter Jasper Scherer present in a brand new evaluation.
Between Jan. 26 and Feb. 24, the Charles Butt Public Training PAC flowed a complete of $1.3 million into the campaigns of 9 Texas GOP candidates, seven of whom opposed Abbott’s voucher plan, in response to Scherer’s quantity crunching. H-E-B honcho Charles Butt is the PAC’s founder and sole donor, in response to TransparencyUSA.
Butt’s transfer pits the top of one among Texas’ deepest-pocketed firms in opposition to Abbott, a Republican who’s made his pro-business credentials a key a part of his model.
Abbott final fall publicly said he would bankroll main challenges to any Home Republican who voted to strip vouchers from a $7 billion omnibus training invoice that handed final final fall. All 21 Republicans who voted alongside Democrats to kill Abbott’s prized voucher proposal now face pro-voucher main opponents this election cycle.
Texas Home District 121 Rep. Steve Allison, whose district consists of Alamo Heights and a part of Northeast San Antonio, acquired $340,608.82 from Butt’s PAC — greater than some other Home GOP candidate, in response to Scherer’s evaluation.
Allison, who voted to take away vouchers from the training invoice, is being challenged by Abbott-backed pro-voucher candidate Marc LaHood.
Abbott has to date spent greater than $6 million and appreciable face time campaigning in opposition to GOP candidates who helped derail vouchers, his key precedence through the 2023 legislative session. The governor will probably be again in San Antonio Thursday to attend one more LaHood rally, the third time he is performed so this cycle.
Different prime recipients of Butt’s PAC cash embrace Home District 18 Rep. Ernest Bailes, District 1 Rep. Gary VanDeaver and District 44 Rep. John Kuempel — all of whom acquired six-figure donations. All three additionally voted to take away college vouchers from the training invoice.
Final yr, H-E-B was among the many prime donors to Abbott’s $4.7 million 2023 inauguration, donating $150,000 to the occasion.
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