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Alex Fairly, a businessman from Amarillois the most recent republican megadonor that makes waves in Texas Capitol.
Last week, Texas Tribune published a story about its sudden ascent as a large electric broker and one of the most prolific donors of GOP legislative candidates.
The story details Fairly’s involvement in the turbulent republican primaries of last year through the litigious race of this year’s room. Initially, fairly aligned with ultra -conservatives in an in progress civil war contesting more republicans of the establishment. Quite spent strongly to try to oust the former lecturer of the Dade Phelan Chamber – who criticisms labeled a republican of name only, or a rino – of the Legislative Assembly. He also pleaded against the current speaker Dustin Burrows in the race for the head of the Chamber and spent millions of people supporting the conservative candidates for the hard line for 19 seats in the room through the State.
But he said to Texas Tribune in an interview only once he started digging in the speakers’ race, he did not like what he saw. He concluded that he had been misleading about a large part of the Texas republican policy by the well -organized political operation largely funded by the oil billionaire Tim Dunn, one of the most feared and influential conservative personalities in Texas policy.
Here are six take -out dishes of our cover:
Was equitably the 10th largest contributor to legislative Texas in 2024
Has spent most of his life is apolitical. He did not register to vote in Texas until the age of 37.
Before 2024, Fairly’s political contributions only included a few big checks to state officials, including the Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. He was also a major supporter of the American representative Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo.
At the end of this year, would be the 10th largest donor of legislative races, giving $ 2.2 million to $ 19 candidates for the House and a candidate in the Senate through the State, according to an analysis of Tribune.
The most money has given enough money to the main challenger in Phelan, David Covey, channeling $ 700,000 in the Covey campaign, most of which were sent after Covey pushed Phelan in a primary runoff. Overall, Fairly’s donations have been more than a quarter of all the money collected. The majority of other donations were between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000. However, in local house races, this could be an important contribution. For example, the donation of $ 150,000 from Fairly to the representative Denise Villalobos, R-Corpus Christi, represented 12% of her total. His donations in his daughter’s race – $ 525,600 – represented 43% of her contributions.
Refused enough an offer to join Tim Dunn
While Fairly’s support for Hardliners has become more prolific, he obtained an invitation to meet Dunn to his political headquarters outside Fort Worth.
Rather said he had visited the Dunn operation, including the network of consultations, fundraising and campaigns. For years, this operation has worked to support extremely conservative candidates and target those they consider too centered in order to move the state to the right.
Dunn just asked if he would be willing to associate with him. At the time, he seemed fairly well placed as a second Dunn type figure, which could add pressure and financing to the Dunn’s political objectives.
Finally, finally refused Dunn, saying that it was not the right time. He will later arrive at the conclusion that he opposed what he was entirely called the dishonest and fanatic attacks used by the Dunn network.
A few months later, I returned to Dunn in order to try to change the way they try to achieve their common conservative objectives.
After trying to avoid Phelan, asked him to meet
A few months after Phelan clung to his headquarters at home by 389 votes, asked him for a short time to meet. Enough said that it was not an offer of peace, but if Phelan would remain a speaker of the room, he wanted to see if he directed the house in a different way.
During the reunion stretched last August, Phelan and discussed the best way to manage the lower room. Phelan told Fairly Naive on Texas policy.
At one point, Phelan just accused of paying the ugly tactics used in the campaign against him – including accusing him of supporting Sharia law because he supported a resolution commemorating a Muslim party. Finally, ended up apologizing.
After the far -right flank of the party continued to attack Phelan in his quest to be a speaker for a third session, he finally abandoned the leadership race. A new battle would emerge between Phelan -ally, Dustin Burrows from Lubbock, and representative David Cook of Mansfield, who would challenge the republicans of the house establishment.
After launching a DOC of $ 20 million with a threat to oust the legislators who did not line up with Cook, he changed direction
In mid-December, Texas House was involved in a ugly battle on which the Republicans should support the lower chamber. The chamber president is the leader of the lower chamber which plays a key role in the bills adopted. More Republicans from the Establishment had aligned themselves behind land while many members of the GOP Caucus were behind Cook who campaigned to reform the Chamber to reduce the power of Democrats.
The far -right groups behind Cook, including the Dunn PAC and the Texas Republican Party – which is largely funded by the Dunn PAC – accused the burrows of being a secret liberal. Equally believed that this was true and that the Republicans had to meet behind Cook.
He announced that he poured $ 20 million in a new CAP “for the sake of Texas House still has no united republican majority”.
“These funds will be available to help extend a real republican majority,” said Fairly. “My strong hope is that we can focus them on widening victories during the next general elections.”
But after a series of meetings with the legislators, including the supporter of Burrows and entering entering John McQueney, began to see how the legislators were harassed and targeted by dishonest attacks.
A few days before the start of the legislative assembly, he published a new declaration reversing his position on the race for speakers.
“The vote for the president belongs to the members,” said Fairly in his declaration.
Fairly’s daughter, the representative, Caroline, has made a parallel change of heart about the speakers’ breed.
During the months preceding the legislative session, the Caroline representative was fairly made with her own decision on whom she would support for the lecturer of the Chamber.
It was originally linked with Cook, but did not agree with the characterizations of terrifying as a liberal, and thought it was hypocritical to attack the grounds for having concluded agreements with the Democrats when Cook had also courted the Democrats for votes.
But she felt that she had to stay with Cook at the risk of being attacked as a rino. When her father changed direction with her PAC, she felt that she was pressuring to stay with Cook to avoid the criticisms that her father, who was the best financial support from her campaign, controlled her seat.
But the morning of the speakers’ race, Caroline woke up enough and said that she could not stay with Cook.
“I will not start my mandate because your representative capitulating external pressures to place a vote with which I disagree,” she wrote in her declaration announcing her decision to change camps.
Used Dunn – and the President of the Texas Republican Party, Abraham George – to change their political tactics
Once the legislative session in progress, he returned to Dunn to see if he would plan to change the operation of his operation.
During a period of a few months, the two men met several times to discuss if there were better ways to achieve conservative objectives in the state which did not require eviscerating his republican colleagues. He congratulated it from having had a frank and difficult conversation, but it was not optimistic that everything changed.
Last month, after the President of the Texas Republican Party Abraham George posted a threat to the primary republican legislators on social networks which do not adopt all the GOP priority bills, called him and called him and tried to prevent him from stopping.
“(Dunn’s Network) is the place where you can get money, whether their money or friends’ money,” said George. “But … the thing you live on is to suffocate your life.”
He has still not spent his money PAC. There is still a deeply conservative republican and always aligns with carnaves like Paxton. As his next decision on the state scene, he says he intends to remain his own person, rather than committed to joining a specific political faction.
“Everyone puts people in a camp, and because I don’t really integrate myself, it doesn’t think it doesn’t make much sense to people,” said Fairly. “It’s just who I am, and I think I’m really comfortable with that.”
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