Abbott took $9 million from data center donors since July 2025; the November 3 election sets the rules
Data center donors gave Governor Greg Abbott his biggest months right after he moved against their economics, and every Texas office that will write the industry's costs takes the same money. The November 3 election decides who sits in those chairs when the 2027 session negotiates the terms.
Richard Tang · 3 min read
The data center industry's giving to Governor Greg Abbott peaked in the months he moved against it, and the reason is a seat at the table. Every Texas office that will write the industry's costs takes the same money, and the November 3 election decides who holds those chairs 1. The Texas Tribune matched every donor of $25,000 or more and found Abbott has taken about $9 million from data-center-tied donors since July 2025 1. That is about 13% of everything he raised 1.
The crackdowns raised the price of a seat
In June, the month Abbott recommended ending the sales tax exemption data centers enjoy, industry-tied donors gave him $1.5 million 1. In August he paused grid-connection approvals pending a statewide audit, and they answered with $2.8 million, his biggest month of the cycle 1. On September 21 he ordered the state environmental agency to issue no data center permits at all until the grid operator and the water board finish their audits 2.
The ledger runs through every office that sets those costs. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick controls the Senate calendar; Comptroller Don Huffines's office approves the exemptions, and most of his industry money came from Brint Ryan, whose firm helps developers win those same abatements 1. Abbott and Patrick now both say the exemption should end 1.
Paying so it is not left out
Jim Henson, who runs the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, reads the giving plainly: the industry expects "something akin to a negotiated settlement" and keeps paying so it is not "left out of the discussions" 1. This is the state ledger beneath the national money we catalogued on October 24 1.
Data center money concentrates in the offices that set its costs
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Greg Abbott (governor) | $9M |
| Dan Patrick (lieutenant governor) | $1.6M |
| Don Huffines (comptroller) | $1M |
| Dustin Burrows (House speaker) | $0.38M |
What is actually being negotiated
Texas runs more than 300 data centers with 142 more under construction, and the projects asking to plug into its grid now total more than five times the state's record peak demand 3. The exemption costs the treasury more than $1 billion a year, and regulators are already rewriting the rules so large users, rather than households, pay for interconnection 4.
The projects built to survive that settlement are the ones bringing their own power and water: Microsoft+0.64% — Microsoft, up 0.64 percent today is adding about two gigawatts in Pecos on on-site gas, though even that route waits on the air permits Abbott halted 3.
The same trade, priced nationally
New York's one-year pause on hyperscale permits set the template, at least 15 states have weighed their own, and BlackRock's−1.69% — BlackRock, down 1.69 percent today Larry Fink counters that a national moratorium "would mean a recession" 56. With the midterms expected to hand Democrats the House, analysts mark data center operators as the headwind and generation, utility and grid-equipment names as the beneficiaries: the wires get built either way 7. Texas settles its version at the ballot, where Abbott leads Gina Hinojosa 51 to 48 and she has taken one industry check, for $25,000 81.
Who pays gets decided this winter
Demand is the steady term in this equation. The variable is the price of permission: ERCOT's audit lands in December, the Legislature convenes in January, and whoever holds the governor's office, the Senate and the comptroller's desk will set who pays for the grid, the water and the siting fights 3. The industry's own money says it expects to pay that price and keep building.
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