Big Real Estate Donors Rain Cash on Texas Governor’s Race

Candidates in the Texas governor’s race are raking in contributions, and real estate players are some of the biggest donors.

The vast majority of that real estate cash has gone to incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.

California billionaire and Majestic Realty heir Edward Roski Jr. has given the Republican’s campaign $1 million, which makes him the governor’s largest individual real estate donor to date, according to Transparency USA, which compiles campaign finance data based on required filings in 12 states.

Majestic has developed and owns several million square feet of warehouse distribution facilities in Austin, Dallas, and Laredo, as well as in other states.

Hill Country ranch owners Michael and Mary Porter donated a combined $1 million to Abbott’s campaign as individuals and another $1 million through the political action committee they launched last year, Texans for Responsible Government. The Porters have been big donors to several Republican candidates for state office since moving to Texas from California several years ago.

In contrast to the publicity-shy Porters, two high-profile real estate donors round out the top of Abbott’s list. Landry’s hospitality empire CEO and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and his wife, Paige, have given Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign a little over $900,000 so far. Data processing scion and real estate developer Ross Perot Jr., chair of Dallas-based Hillwood, has donated $750,000 to date.

On the Democratic side of the race, O’Rourke’s highest-profile donor connected to real estate is probably his mother-in-law. Nancy Sanders is married to Bill Sanders, who founded a Chicago company that later merged to become commercial real estate services giant JLL and has been called the “grandfather of the REIT.” She donated more than $142,000 to O’Rourke’s current campaign.

O’Rourke’s largest contribution has come from Powered by People, a political action committee that includes aggregated unitemized contributions and smaller PACs.

Since entering the race, O’Rourke has outraised the current governor in donations to the race, according to a July 19 Texas Tribune report, bringing in $41 million to the Abbott campaign’s $37 million. Since Abbott’s campaign had a $55 million war chest to start with, however, he still has about twice as much cash on hand.