Donald Trump has built close ties to many Texas Republicans, from judges to elected officials to policy experts.

The action comes after The Texas Tribune reported that influencers were being paid to defend impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Under outgoing chair Matt Rinaldi, the party’s donor base has shrunk as it aligns with two far-right megadonors.

Incumbents saw key support from the business community, while hardline conservatives like Tim Dunn also spent heavily.

Phelan’s primary has emerged as a last stand for the Republican Party’s business-minded establishment against an insurgency primarily motivated by social and cultural issues.

The former lawmaker registered “RaTmasTeR Holdings” along with Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi. The name is a nod to Stickland’s alias as an infamous internet troll.

Straus, who is Jewish, publicly confirmed the conversation for the first time Thursday. It had previously been reported by Texas Monthly.

The Tribune reported last year that a company called Influenceable LLC was paid to recruit influencers to defend Attorney General Ken Paxton over his impeachment.

With his impeachment and securities fraud case behind him, Paxton’s political stock is on the rise.

All told, 11 of the 28 House candidates supported by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks won their primaries outright, and another eight are headed to runoffs this May.

Texans For Lawsuit Reform and pro-voucher groups are also spending millions.

In a statement, Biedermann said the point he was trying to make was that leaders “selectively punish impropriety.”

In the wake of a scandal tying them to white supremacists, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks started a new PAC to support far-right candidates

The Defend Texas Liberty PAC gave just $10,000 in the last two months of 2023 and received no new money from its billionaire funders.

In his teens and his 20s, Stickland was a prolific internet troll. But instead of growing out of it, he would make a career of it — ascending to the role of a conservative Texas powerbroker, before taking heat for hosting a meeting with white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

Tim Dunn has used his wealth to establish a network of organizations that push his ultraconservative views across Texas. The deal comes amid a time of consolidation in the Permian Basin.

In a Nov. 13 filing with the Texas Secretary of State, an attorney for Pale Horse Strategies LLC wrote that the firm would also conduct future business under the name “West Fort Worth Management LLC.”

The group has funded candidates and groups like the Texas GOP who have pushed fellow Republicans to take a harder line against things like illegal immigration and transgender people.

Two other Republican lawmakers are giving away donations after Nick Fuentes was seen visiting the office building associated with Defend Texas Liberty PAC President Jonathan Stickland. The meeting has roiled the party, leading to many Republicans calling on their peers to return money from the PAC.

After a June gathering in Fort Worth sponsored by a new company, Influenceable, social media leaders began backing the suspended Texas attorney general and a controversial human trafficking film. Those who favor transparency in political advocacy are concerned.

An American woman who fled the U.K. claiming diplomatic immunity after she was involved in a fatal traffic accident has appeared in a British court via videolink — an apparent breakthrough in the long-deadlocked case.

Charlotte Charles sits with Tim Dunn, parents 19-year-old Harry Dunn, at their home in Charlton, England, Tuesday Nov. 24, 2020. The parents of the British teen Harry Dunn who was killed in a car crash lost a court battle with the U.K. government Tuesday over whether their sons alleged killer, an American woman, had diplomatic immunity. (Jacob King/PA via AP)LONDON – The parents of a British teen who was killed in a crash lost a court battle with the U.K. government Tuesday over whether an American woman involved in the collision had diplomatic immunity. Officials said she was entitled to diplomatic immunity because her husband worked at the airbase. Dunn’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, launched the court case to argue that Britain’s Foreign Office wrongly decided Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity and unlawfully obstructed the police investigation into their son’s death.

Republican Texas Senate candidate Shelley Luther received a $1 million campaign loan from conservative megadonor Tim Dunn. Credit: The Texas TribuneSign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. The conservative megadonor Tim Dunn is backing Shelley Luther in her Texas Senate bid with a $1 million loan, a large amount for such a race. Luther's campaign confirmed the $1 million loan Friday evening, three days before a campaign finance deadline in the race. In a statement explaining his support for Luther, Dunn praised her for standing up to what he described as bipartisan government overreach in the fight against the pandemic.

A decade before Tim Dunn became the benefactor behind one of the state’s most aggressive conservative groups, the West Texas oil and gas developer founded a school. The move marked his personal interest in education policy.

A Midland oilman has spent millions over the last decade financing groups focused on moving the Texas Legislature in a more conservative direction. While critics have decried his hardball tactics, Tim Dunn isn't backing down.