Texas Attorney General candidate Louie Gohmert’s campaign finance reports have revealed intriguing information.
Last week, Current Revolt, a Texas-based news and politics website, reported on the Gohmert campaign purchasing a $65,000 vehicle using political donations.
Gohmert’s campaign finance reports also revealed that he did not meet his fundraising goal. Before Gohmert officially entered the race for Attorney General, he vowed in early November to only enter if he managed to raise $1 million in ten days.
Gohmert announced that he met the goal and officially entered his name as a candidate later in the month.
“I had announced a couple of days ago that if I could raise a million dollars that I would run […] for attorney general, and as of now, the money, it’s been raised. I will be running for the Texas Attorney General’s job,” Gohmert said on an appearance on Newsmax when he announced his campaign.
However, January’s campaign finance reports from the Texas Ethics Commissions website revealed that he did not meet his prerequisite for several weeks. The reports show that Gohmert did not reach $1 million in donations until a rush of big-dollar donations came in on New Year’s Eve. December 31 was the cutoff reporting date for January’s campaign finance report.
Gohmert received $350,000 in donations on New Year’s Eve alone, pushing the campaign’s total amount of political contributions to just over $1 million.
In a statement to the Dallas Morning News, Gohmert said his campaign did reach the goal in the first ten days in the form of “both contributions and commitments.”
“Getting all of the money in house took more time,” he said, “but we got it just as we were promised and just as we promised.”
The reports also revealed that most of Gohmert’s contributions have come from just two people, who happen to be members of the Texas Freedom Caucus.
Texas Representative Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth) contributed $250,000 to Gohmert’s campaign. Krause entered the Texas Attorney General’s race before backing out and announcing plans to instead run for Tarrant County district attorney. $300,000 came from Texas Representative Mayes Middleton (R-Wallisville), who is now running for the Texas Senate with the endorsement of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.
In a recent poll by the University of Houston, Gohmert was the closest competitor to current AG Ken Paxton in the primary race, with 15% of support from likely Republican voters compared to Paxton’s 44% support.
If Paxton is held under 50% in the March 1 primary, he will enter a run-off with the second-place finisher.
Paxton views Gohmert as his biggest threat, as so far, his campaign has only released targeted attack ads against Gohmert. The other two candidates in the Republican primary ‒ Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman- have been spared from targeted attack ads from Paxton.
Since January 11, TV ads that criticized Gohmert by Paxton’s campaign have been showing exclusively in East Texas, Gohmert’s district. Anti-Gohmert mail has also surfaced from the Paxton campaign and Facebook ads targeting Gohmert.
In a statement via the Texas Tribune, Gohmert was proud to be the focus of Paxton’s campaign.
“The fact that our compromised AG is only attacking me also tells you that he recognizes the real conservative in the race,” Gohmert said.
Gohmert has joined the other Republicans in the primary in criticizing AG Paxton’s integrity as he has been dealing with legal issues.
“Ken Paxton is under indictment for securities fraud and facing a federal investigation for bribery and corruption, so Louie Gohmert is running to save Texas and restore honesty and integrity to the office of Attorney General,” Gohmert says in his online ads.
Paxton was indicted in 2015 on securities fraud charges shortly after taking office. A separate FBI investigation has been ongoing into Paxton for allegations made by former staffers that he abused his office to help a wealthy donor.
The legal issues have not prevented Paxton from currently having over $7 million in political donations saved up and receiving the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
“Who is Trump’s pick for Texas Attorney General? Not Louie Gohmert,” a Facebook ad from Paxton reads.
Gohmert, who has aligned himself closely with Trump, has challenged Paxton’s endorsement from the former president. Gohmert has said that he believes Trump only endorsed Paxton because he was unsure if Gohmert would enter the race.