Super PACs associated with billionaire George Soros and onetime rising Democrat star Beto O’Rourke are the top funders in helping dozens of AWOL Texas Democrats remain decamped in other states, according to reports.
O’Rourke’s Powered by People and Texas Majority PAC backed by megadonor Soros helped fund the exodus of 57 Texas Democrats on Sunday via private plane as well as the food and lodging expenses they’re incurring in Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York, the Texas Tribune reported.
Not only that, daily $500 fines could total $382,500 if every Democrat remains out of state for the entire special session, set to end Aug. 19.
Powered by People has been donating to the Texas House Democratic Caucus, not individual lawmakers, ABC News reported Wednesday.
Powered by People paid for a private plane from CommuteAir to ferry away the lawmakers on Sunday, according to the Tribune. Texas Majority PAC is coordinating with national groups to solicit fundraising for the Democrats who have left the state.
“We will have the backs of these heroic state lawmakers for as long as it takes to stop Trump’s power grab,” O’Rourke said in a statement to ABC News.
While Democrats are sorely outnumbered in the Texas House, making the redistricting passage a foregone conclusion, their numbers are such that they can thwart a quorum, bringing the legislative session to a halt.
Notably, O’Rourke assured Democrats in the weeks before Monday’s vote on redistricting that they would have his full support of cash and rhetoric if they chose to leave the state, ABC News reported.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday announced an investigation into O’Rourke’s PAC, accusing Powered by People of “potentially operating an illegal financial influence scheme to bribe runaway Democrats.”
Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned the Democrats that they could face felony charges for fundraising efforts to cover their costs.
In a letter late Sunday, hours after the Democrats bolted from Texas, Abbott, a Republican, said Democrats who are “soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules” may be violating bribery laws, and the same goes for anyone donating to their cause.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also referenced the potential “violation of law” and bribery in his letter to the FBI on Tuesday asking the agency to join the effort to locate and arrest the Democrats who have left Texas.
“Every dime of expense for this effort is being paid for lawfully,” a House Democratic Caucus spokesperson told ABC News.
That’s what Paxton, who is challenging Cornyn in the GOP primary for his Senate seat next year, is determined to find out.
“Texas cannot be bought,” Paxton said in Wednesday’s release. “I look forward to thoroughly reviewing all of the documents and communications obtained throughout this investigation. These jet-setting runaways have already lost public trust by abandoning our state, and Texans deserve to know if they received illegal bribes to do it.”
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