This past Sunday CNN aired a documentary this past Sunday called Deep in the Pockets of Texas and it covered two christofascists who are funding the far right in Texas and pushing moderate Republicans to the far right in order to stay in office.
It is deeply disturbing how much they have done. These are names you should know as intimately as the Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdoch.
Two billionaire oil and fracking magnates from West Texas, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have quietly bankrolled some of Texas' most far-right political candidates -- helping reshape the state's Republican Party in their worldview. Wilks is part of a brother set just like the Koch brothers.
The documentary is re-airing Friday July 29, 2022 at 10pm Central!
IMDB page for Deep in the Pockets of Texas
Here is the companion article that goes with the documentary.
Here is an article talking about Wilks & Dunn gave to Ted Cruz in 2016.
An article on how Right Wing Christianity is incompatible with liberal democracy.
Here is an article on Wilks and Dunn spending big on Republican Primary races.
Here is an article on how Wilks and Dunn are destroying public education.
Here is an article on how Wilks and Dunn are setting up a Russian-style oligarchy in Texas.
Public Accountability Initiative on How Private Equity and the Fossil Fuel Industry are Propping up the Texas Far Right.
Texas Tribune article on Wilks and Dunn and how they spent big and won little in the Republican primary.
This is a twitter thread by Christopher Tackett where he goes over the major points of the documentary. He also brings up the 7 Mountains.
This is a twitter thread by Christopher Tackett where he goes over where all their money went.
Did you watch the @cnn documentary "Deep In The Pockets Of Texas"? If so, you saw two Texas billionaires featured, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. What will follow is where the money they gave from January 1, 2015 to Current went, directly and via PAC's where they are major donors
In the list below, the "Primary" PACs list for Wilks and Dunn I'm leveraging: Empower Texans Texas Right to Life Texans for Fiscal Responsibility Texas Homeschool Coalition There are a whole host of other PACs they and those who share ideology with utilize, but keeping it simple
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / & primary PACs 1. Defend Texas Liberty - $7,475,000 2. Empower Texans - $5,809,500 3. Don Huffines - $3,747,117 4. Texas Right to Life - $2,500,133 5. Shelley Luther - $2,067,936 6. Ken Paxton - $1,181,000 7. Jon Francis - $1,152,500 (1 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 8. Bob Hall - $879,267 9. Jonathan Stickland - $812,279 10. Jeff Cason - $745,500 11. Thomas McNutt - $710,769 12. Konni Burton - $678,707 13. Mike Lang - 662,307 14. Bryan Slaton - $654,038 (2 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs
15. Tony Tinderholt - $626,046
16. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility - $602,400
17. Matt Rinaldi - $549,169
18. Dan Patrick - $543,401
19. Bo French - $442,612
20. Mike Canon - $392,780 (3 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 21. Texas Homeschool Coalition - $337,500 26. Kyle Biedermann - $302,756 22. Matt Beebe - $262,646 23. Republican Party of Texas - $261,500 24. Stuart Spitzer - $240,318 25. Deanna Metzger - $235,500 (4 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 27. Texas Republican Party - $223,975 28. David Lowe - $208,734 29. Jonathan Boos - $205,800 30. Conservative Republicans of Texas - $194,500 31. Jill Wolfskill - $183,840 32. Emily Kebodeaux Cook - $177,548 (5 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 33. Nate Schatzline - $175,509 34. Jeff Younger - $175,223 35. Briscoe Cain - $166,787 35. Armin Minzani - $160,600 36. Valoree Swanson - $157,750 36. Brent Lawson - $138,546 37. Susanna Dokupil - $137,281 (6 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 38. Adam Strahan - $126,506 39. Jay Wiley - $126,169 40. Michael Toth - $119,500 41. Bryan Hughes - $114,500 42. True Texas Project / NE Tarrant Tea Party - $108,232 43. Angela Paxton - $105,000 (7 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 44. Molly White - $103,000 45. Damon Rambo - $102,800 46. Texans for Vaccine Choice - $90,000 47. Chris Fails - $87,800 48. Garrett Boersma - $87,543 49. Cole Hefner - $86,405 50. Wayne Christian - $85,500 (8 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 51. Stewart Spitzer - $82,655 52. Chris Evans - $78,525 53. John Keating - $78,160 54. Jeff Judson - $78,000 55. Matt Shaheen - $75,500 56. James Landtroop - $75,000 57. Mike Olcott - $75,000 (9 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 58. Texas Freedom Caucus - $75,000 59. Lisa Luby Ryan - $74,275 60. Matt Schaefer - $73,738 61. Jason Huddleston - $72,671 62. Jess Fields - $72,500 63. Mike Massengale - $70,000 64. Steve Toth - $68,500 (10 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 65. Jared Patterson - $64,738 66. Kevin Sparks - $60,000 67. Terry Wilson - $58,000 68. Bill Zedler - $57,000 69. Stephen Hopper - $55,000 70. Sid Miller - $55,000 71. Constituents Focus - $55,000 (11 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 72. Kevin Fulton - $48,367 73. Dawn Buckingham - $45,000 74. Matt Krause - $44,000 75. Daniel Morenoff - $42,209 76. Read King - $39,575 77. Raymond Wheless - $37,500 78. Texas Federation for Children - $37,500 (12 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 79. Jeff Leach - $36,000 80. Christi Craddick - $36,000 81. Young Conservatives of Texas - $35,000 82. Drew Brassfield - $32,800 83. Mark Roy - $32,600 84. Parker County Conservatives - $32,500 (13 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 85. Principios - $31,951 86. David Watts - $29,000 87. Josh Crawford - $27,500 88. Dustin Burrows - $27,000 89. Pete Flores - $25,203 90. Brian Harrison - $25,000 91. Ryan Sitton - $25,000 92. Philip Eby - $23,000 (14 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 93. Chris Grisham - $22,800 94. Brent Webster - $21,000 95. Sarah Laningham - $20,699 96. Tarrant County Republicans - $20,450 97. Christine Kalmbach - $20,000 98. James Wright - $20,000 99. Victor Leal - $20,000 (15 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 100. Phillip Huffines - $20,000 101. Grassroots America - We The People - $18,897 102. Teresa Wilson - $17,000 103. Caroline Harris - $17,000 104. Greg Abbott - $15,500 105. James Dickey - $15,000 (16 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 106. James Munford - $15,000 107. Denton County Republicans - $15,000 108. Paul Bettencourt - $15,000 109. Texas Patriots State PAC - $15,000 110. Texans for Strong Borders - $15,000 111. Brandon Hall - $14,500 (17 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 112. Collin County Conservative Republicans - $14,000 113. Walter Bius - $13,700 114. Kelly Hancock - $13,000 115. Texas Gun Rights - $12,500 116. Carrie Isaac - $12,000 117. Claver Kamau-Imani - $11,709 (18 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 118. Richard Green - $11,500 119. Texans for Toll-free Highways - $10,653 120. Aaron Kinsey - $10,000 121. Evan Young - $10,000 122. United for Texas - $10,000 123. Jeff Boyd - $10,000 124. David Porter - $10,000 (19 of 20)
Contributions from Dunn / Wilks / their primary PACs 125. Tarrant County Patriots - $10,000 126. Tom Glass - $10,000 Whew! That's everyone with $10k or more. There are another 68 with lower amounts. (20 of 20)
Every person or group in the list above are compromised by the ideology of Wilks and Dunn, namely Christian nationalism. If you want to ensure religion isn't imposed upon us all, you need to vote out those in office, reject those groups they are supporting, and be vocal about it.
Here is the story from @cnn that goes with the #DeepInThePocketsOfTexas documentary to help explain why you need to know everyone Dunn and Wilks gave money to (all of the many tweets above). #txlege
As you see in #DeepInThePocketsofTexas, I track campaign finance in Texas. I pull the state level data from the Texas Ethics Commission and turn it into various charts, making it all searchable for anyone who wants to use it. You can access it at http://christackettnow.com#txlege
The 20 tweets of Dunn and Wilks campaign finance "giving", that's only from what they are giving to state level races. Local races, those aren't kept in Austin, but with the local entities (school district, city or county government). Those are harder to assemble. But Federal...
At the Federal level, the FEC does have info on Wilks and Dunn. From 2015 to Current, here is what is on file. 1. Keep The Promise III (Ted Cruz) - $15,000,000 2. Senate Reform Fund (Montana: against Jon Tester) - $2,256,000 3. Club for Growth Action - $1,000,000 (1 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 4. Trump Victory - $600,000 5. Our American Century - $550,000 6. Republican National Committee - $527,000 7. Congressional Reform Fund - $325,000 8. Right Women PAC - $290,000 9. Believe Again - $250,000 (2 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 10. Texans Are - $200,000 11. Ted Cruz - $105,000 12. Revitalizing Our American Dreams - $100,000 13. Team Graves - $100,000 14. American Greatness - $100,000 15. NRCC - $96,900 16. Republican Party of Texas - $70,000 (3 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 17. Daines Montana Victory - $55,600 18. Stand With Texas - $50,000 19. Montana Republican State Central - $44,400 20. Palmer Victory - $43,000 21. Chip Roy for Congress - $38,030 22. Gianforte Victory Fund - $35,000 (4 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 23. Texas Right to Life - $35,000 24. Van Taylor - $32,900 25. Donald J. Trump - $28,250 26. Ted Budd for Congress / Senate - $21,500 27. Rosendale Victory Fund - $20,800 28. John Cornyn - $20,000 (5 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 29. Republican Party of Kentucky - $20,000 30. Stutzman For Senate - $20,000 31. Perdue For Senate - $16,800 32. Steve Daines for Montana - $16,600 33. Daines Big Sky Committee - $15,000 34. Georgia PAC - $15,000 (6 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 35. Our Values PAC - $15,000 36. One Generation - $15,000 37. Greg For Montana - $13,100 38. Paul Gosar for Congress - $12,000 39. Ron Wright for Congress - $10,400 4 0. House Freedom Action - $10,000 (7 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 41. Republican Party of Arkansas - $10,000 42. California Republican Party - $10,000 43. House Freedom Fund - $10,000 44. Arizona Republican Party - $10,000 45. Job Opportunity And New Ideas - $10,000 (8 of 9)
Wilks and Dunn (Federal 2015 to Current) 46. Your Voice Counts - $10,000 47. Tim Scott For Senate - $10,000 48. House Conservatives Fund - $10,000 49. Alabama Republican Party - $10,000 There are 83 more with less than $10k (9 of 9)
As you can see in the tweets above, Wilks and Dunn are not just investing in Texas politicians. They are investing all over the country. We know what they are after. It’s “dominion”. #DeepInThePocketsofTexas
Here you can check it out yourself a chart version of the Texas Ethics Commission.
Here it is as a pdf for you to check out and download.
Here is a thread on how now Wilks/Dunn employees, school voucher pushers, etc are freaking out about the documentary. It is making waves. A Dominionist former Texas Rep Jonathan Strickland who now works as PAC manager for Dunn & Wilks is calling the Tacketts Satanists and groomers.
Here is another thread.
"You want to understand the concerted attack on our democracy? Or what animates the ideology of leading white Christian nationalists? 7. This video compiles clips from churches, radio shows, and voter engagement events. It's in their words. Please share."
"An overview of the 7 Mountains theology illustrated through clips from Stonewater Church (Granbury, TX), two clips of Rafael Cruz at different events (Fort Worth and Granbury, TX), David Barton (WallBuilders in Aledo, TX) and Lance Wallnau (Dallas, TX)."
The 7 Mountains are: Religion, Education, Family, Government, Media, Arts/Entertainment, & Business. These are the pillars of any society and anyone who controls them controls belief, controls information, controls wealth, and controls all of the pillars. And they believe that all of the pillars must be 'biblical orientated' by sending their Christian warriors to those pillars to control it.
Basically, they (Christian Nationalists/Dominionists) must do what the Chinese Communist Party has done to China and take control of the whole nation through the culture and remake it in their image of what being Christian means.
They believe this to be a prophecy that MUST be done in order to bring Jesus back to Earth...
You might also want to watch The Family documentary on Netflix.
Do recall about the scandal of one of the groups that a did a brief on Dobbs admitted to praying with SCOTUS.
So it's not a con, these people do exist and they do have power over our lives because they have money and influence on the legislature, judicial, and executive branches of our government from federal to local.