Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former President Donald J. Trump attend a security briefing with state officials and law enforcement at the Weslaco Department of Public Safety DPS headquarters before inaugurating the border wall between the USA and Mexico in Weslaco, TX.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Abraham George is poised to take the helm of the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) as the influential state political organization abandons its longstanding alliance with corporate America.
Instead, the RPT pursues an anti-corporate and anti-elite populist agenda that is gaining ground among Republicans across the country in the Trump era.
The annual Texas Republican Convention began Thursday in San Antonio and culminated with the election of George as party chairman. The event has long offered lucrative corporate sponsorships from Fortune 500 companies. But this year, the names of the biggest sponsors of the past were missing from the banners and agendas.
Verizon, Comcast And Union Pacific he sponsored the 2020 Texas Republican Convention, according to The Texas Tribune. But they are not listed as supporters this year.
Pepsi And Chevron were sponsors of the 2022 Texas Republican Convention but are not supporting this year’s event.
Spokespeople for Verizon, Comcast, Pepsi and Chevron did not respond to requests for comment. A Union Pacific spokesperson would only say that the company’s “political contributions” are nonpartisan and are publicly disclosed in accordance with state and federal laws.
The dispute over corporate funds also broke out in the election, which George won as party leader on Friday.
Veteran Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak was among the group of candidates vying to become the state’s next GOP chairman. In a memo declaring his candidacy, Mackowiak complained that “corporate fundraising for the party is virtually non-existent.”
Griffin Perry, a Texas businessman and son of Republican former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said earlier this week that it was time for the party to shift back to working with businesses.
“The next chair must work with our companies,” Perry told CNBC. “There is no reason why the Texas Republican Party shouldn’t have corporate support.”
As for the lack of corporate sponsorship this year, Perry blamed the leadership team, which was replaced Friday. This team wears it “as a badge of honor,” he said before the state party’s new chairman was elected.
Enlarge symbolArrows point outwards
Sponsors of the 2024 Republican Party of Texas Convention.
Republican Party of Texas
In fact, James Wesolek, the RPT’s communications director, told CNBC, “The Republican Party is the party of hard-working Americans, not woke corporations who want to destroy the America we love.”
Wesolek denied that the disappearance of traditional sponsors had any impact on this week’s state party conference.
“The party has fully funded our convention with sponsors who do not require us to compromise on our values,” he said.
This year, the sponsorship list consists almost entirely of political action committees and campaigns, and there are almost no corporate sponsors.
As of Thursday, the only two listed companies on the tobacco giant’s sponsor list were Altria and the Houston-based electric and natural gas utility CenterPoint Energy.
Patriot Mobile, which describes itself as the country’s only “Christian conservative wireless carrier,” was listed, as was Conn’s HomePlus.
But it’s not just the Texas GOP state convention that’s losing corporate sponsors.
According to The Texas Tribune, corporate donations to the state party’s general giving account have fallen to their lowest level in at least a decade.
Eight years have passed since the tech giant Google has donated money to the Republican Party of Texas, according to campaign finance records.
The situation is similar with over half a dozen other companies BNSF Railway, the railroad giant headquartered in the Lone Star State. According to the records, BSNF’s last donation to the Republican Party of Texas was in 2019 for $5,000.
According to campaign finance reports, no money from BNSF or Google has appeared in state coffers since then. A Google representative declined to comment. BNSF did not respond to requests for comment.
However, according to campaign finance records, Verizon and Union Pacific have each donated at least $5,000 to the Texas Republican Party this year.
As the party moves further to the right, some companies that were once regular supporters of the Texas Republican Party are now withholding their money, state campaign finance records show.
These former corporate sponsors are being turned off by Texas Republicans’ increasingly anti-business rhetoric, their vicious infighting and a range of increasingly conservative policy positions, political activists and fundraisers in the state tell CNBC.
For example, a law passed in 2022 bans all abortions in Texas except in rare, extreme cases and allows for the criminal prosecution of doctors and medical professionals. In 2023, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill banning gender-affirming medical care for minors.
Earlier this year, the Texas public school investment fund withdrew $8.5 billion from administration BlackRock, due to the company’s alleged reluctance to invest in fossil fuels. BlackRock denied the accusation.
“I can understand why companies don’t want to attend a convention because they appear to be supporting one [Republican] organization that attacks Republican officials,” said Wayne Hamilton, a longtime Republican activist who once served as executive director of the RPT.
Hamilton and other political advisers who spoke to CNBC pointed out how the state party took the extraordinary step of formally censuring Texas House Republican Speaker Dade Phelan and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-Texas.
Phelan has been criticized for his role in the impeachment of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Gonzales was criticized for supporting a bipartisan gun safety law in Congress and voting for a bill establishing the right to same-sex marriage.
While there are few tangible legal consequences, the censures for Phelan and Gonzalez have real political consequences: Both men face a May 28 runoff in their Republican primary.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
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2024-05-25 00:04:48
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