Photo via Facebook / H-E-B
H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt (center) poses with San Antonio music icon Flaco Jimenez and Gov. Greg Abbott at an event.
The chairman of San Antonio-based grocery giant H-E-B has funneled more than $1 million into the campaigns of anti-school voucher Republicans that Gov. Greg Abbott is working to unseat, Hearst Texas government reporter Jasper Scherer found in a new analysis.
Between Jan. 26 and Feb. 24, the Charles Butt Public Education PAC flowed a total of $1.3 million into the campaigns of nine Texas GOP candidates, seven of whom opposed Abbott's voucher plan, according to Scherer's number crunching. H-E-B honcho Charles Butt is the PAC's founder and sole donor, according to TransparencyUSA.
Butt's move pits the head of one of Texas' deepest-pocketed corporations against Abbott, a Republican who's made his pro-business credentials a key part of his brand.
Abbott last fall publicly stated he would bankroll primary challenges to any House Republican who voted to strip vouchers from a $7 billion omnibus education bill that passed last last fall. All 21 Republicans who voted alongside Democrats to kill Abbott's prized voucher proposal now face pro-voucher primary opponents this election cycle.
Texas House District 121 Rep. Steve Allison, whose district includes Alamo Heights and part of Northeast San Antonio, received $340,608.82 from Butt's PAC — more than any other House GOP candidate, according to Scherer's analysis.
Allison, who voted to remove vouchers from the education bill, is being challenged by Abbott-backed pro-voucher candidate Marc LaHood.
Abbott has so far spent more than $6 million and considerable face time campaigning against GOP candidates who helped derail vouchers, his key priority during the 2023 legislative session. The governor will be back in San Antonio Thursday to attend yet another LaHood rally, the third time he's done so this cycle.
Other top recipients of Butt's PAC money include House District 18 Rep. Ernest Bailes, District 1 Rep. Gary VanDeaver and District 44 Rep. John Kuempel — all of whom received six-figure donations. All three also voted to remove school vouchers from the education bill.
Last year, H-E-B was among the top donors to Abbott's $4.7 million 2023 inauguration, donating $150,000 to the event.
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