Trump Holding Robstown Rally on Saturday
Former President Donald Trump will hold his second rally in Texas this year on Saturday, October 22. It will begin at 2:00 p.m. and run until 8:00 p.m. at the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds in Robstown.
January’s rally in Conroe brought out the full gamut of Texas Republican speakers ahead of the primary. This time, the list of speakers opening for the former president is smaller. Those officials are:
- Lt. Governor Dan Patrick
- Attorney General Ken Paxton
- U.S. Representative Michael Cloud (R-TX-27)
- Tom Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council
The Trump camp’s press release says the former president will discuss “his unprecedented effort to advance the MAGA agenda by energizing voters and highlighting the slate of 33-0 Trump Endorsed America First candidates in the Great State of Texas.”
Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that he will not be in attendance due to a previously scheduled fundraising trip to Florida.
Candidate Donations from Speaker Phelan
House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) has spent over $1 million in Texas House races since July 1, data from the Texas Ethics Commission shows.
During the GOP primary, Phelan divvied out more than $2 million to 25 different Republicans, not including his runoff contributions. So far, this election’s expenditure is substantially less and shared among fewer individuals.
Seventeen Republicans have received in-kind contributions from the speaker; only 10 were allotted more than $25,000. The single largest contribution was a $100,000 television ad buy for John Lujan, the incumbent running in House District (HD) 118 in San Antonio — one of the two most competitive seats this cycle. Lujan is the largest beneficiary of Phelan’s financial contributions during this period.
The Republican in the other most competitive race — Jamee Jolly in Collin County’s HD 70 — was given the second-most amount of money from Phelan. The largest expenditure on her behalf was $31,000 for digital advertising.
The third-highest beneficiary is Janie Lopez, who is running in the Rio Grande Valley’s HD 37, totaling $129,820.
“Speaker Phelan is focused on supporting Republican incumbents and open seat candidates in competitive battleground races to grow the Republican majority in the Texas House,” the speaker’s campaign said in a statement to The Texan. “Speaker Phelan has devoted countless hours and resources to help candidates in priority races across the state. His efforts are contributing to the swelling momentum for the GOP and inroads being made in South Texas.”
“Our team is carrying out one of the most aggressive and robust campaign strategies ever developed by a Texas House speaker for the 2022 midterm elections. Speaker Phelan invested more than $3 million in the primaries, and our team is positioned to continue deploying additional support for Republican candidates to secure more victories at the state House level for the general election.”
Below are the totals for each individual candidate along with their district’s Texas Partisan Index rating — which gauges the partisan leaning of each district. Asterisks denote an incumbent.
Recipient Amount District TPI Rating
John Lujan $244,233 118 EVEN
Jamee Jolly $154,130 70 EVEN
Janie Lopez $129,820 37 D-53%
Ben Bumgarner $97,235 63 R-57%
Angie Chen Button* $89,284 112 R-57%
Frederick Frazier $49,200 61 R-58%
Steve Allison* $48,750 121 R-56%
Mano DeAyala $45,009 133 R-57%
Morgan Meyer* $37,500 108 R-59%
Caroline Harris $25,500 52 R-55%
Kronda Thimesch $17,850 65 R-58%
Lacey Hull* $15,000 138 R-56%
Matt Shaheen* $12,750 66 R-59%
Jacey Jetton* $12,750 26 R-60%
Brad Buckley* $12,750 54 R-55%
Jeff Leach* $12,400 67 R-58%
Stan Gerdes $5,000 17 R-64%
Latest Campaign Ads
Below are the latest television ads being aired by candidates for Texas’ highest offices
Greg Abbott
Beto O’Rourke
In O'Rourke commercial, narrator criticizes Abbott over grid, guns and abortion, asking, "How much more must we lose because Greg Abbott is governor?" #TXGOV pic.twitter.com/vDhF4FR12q
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) October 18, 2022
Dan Patrick
.@DanPatrick goes negative against @CollierForTexas on TV, tying him to Biden. (Collier advised Biden's 2020 campaign in Texas.) #txlege (h/t @JeremySWallace) pic.twitter.com/9zzRBxIznF
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) October 10, 2022
Mike Collier
Ken Paxton
Rochelle Garza
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
