Greg Abbott Lines His Pockets with Millions More in Musk Money
DALLAS, TX – One day after POLITICO reported on a secret closed-door meeting that senior staff for career politician Greg Abbott had with major Big Tech companies to “remove roadblocks” for bringing more data centers to Texas, POLITICO now reports that Abbott continues fill his campaign war chest with millions of dollars in donations from data center special interests, including trillionaire Elon Musk, who’s now Abbott’s single largest donor this election cycle.
Musk gave Abbott $5 million on September 28, after previously donating $500,000 to Abbott about three months before Abbott awarded Musk nearly $2 billion in property tax breaks for Musk’s TeraFab AI project, making Musk the single largest beneficiary of Texas’s Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) program.
Abbott also handed Musk’s SpaceX a $30 million grant this summer through the Texas Enterprise Fund.
Abbott’s financial and political ties to Musk come amid reporting that Abbott’s administration is considering selling about 1,000 acres of Texas’s Boca Chica state park and beach to Musk’s SpaceX and reporting showing Abbott has continued to approve dozens of data center permits even after promising Texas that permits were paused.
And let’s not forget: Musk once called Abbott while the governor was having dinner with his wife on Valentine’s Day because Musk wanted to know whether Abbott “would have his back.”
Abbott’s response: “I said 100%.”
“Nobody believes that Greg Abbott is serious about cracking down on data centers or protecting Texas land. He spent more than 10 years rolling out the red carpet for the industry, handing out massive tax breaks, and working behind closed doors to make it easier for them to come here. And that’s precisely what his billionaire and trillionaire tech donors are counting on if Greg Abbott gets four more years. But Texas is not and will never be for sale, which is why the contrast in this race could not be clearer: Greg Abbott is for Elon Musk. Gina Hinojosa is for Texas,” said Texas Democratic Party Spokesman Jacob Long.