Over the last 15 years, Mayes Middleton has become a prolific GOP donor, spending millions of his oil and gas fortune on conservative candidates and causes. His largesse has helped fund the rise of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and quietly enabled challenges to Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Most of all, though, his money has fueled his own political rise, from a little-known oil and gas heir to a state legislator and, now, front-runner in the race to replace Paxton. After coming first in the March primary, Middleton, a senator from Galveston, will face U.S. Rep. Chip Roy in the May 26 runoff.
Middleton has spent more than $16 million of his own money on the race so far, dwarfing any of his previous political spending many times over. Roy and his backers argue Middleton is trying to buy the race, through his deluge of television ads and endorsements from candidates and groups he’s supported, despite his thin legal resume and qualifications for the job.
“I look at the amount of money being thrown around by my opponent, into groups that then endorse him, somebody tell me how that’s not a conflict of interest,” Roy said at a recent campaign stop in Dripping Springs. “It just don’t smell right to me.”
Middleton didn’t respond to a request for comment. His supporters, many of whom have benefited from his political generosity, say they’re backing him for the same reason he backed them — shared political beliefs and a strong sense that he’d be the best fit for the job.
Tarrant County Commissioner Matt Krause, who served in the Legislature with Middleton and has received more than $300,000 from him over the years, rejected the idea that Middleton was expecting a quid pro quo in exchange for his donations.
“I look at it much more positively, like, this guy’s been willing to write a check to all these people to support them, because it was the right thing to do at the time,” Krause said. “He approached it much more like, ‘Hey, Matt, we’ve been in the battle together, we’ve walked arm in arm, you know my beliefs. You know my values, you can trust me, and I would appreciate that support.’ And people like me are wholeheartedly willing to do that.”
Funding the freedom fighters
Middleton’s father, John Gregg Middleton was deeply involved in Chambers County civic life, serving on city council and the board of the local bank and country club. Gov. Bill Clements, the first Republican elected to statewide office in Texas since Reconstruction, appointed him to the Trinity River Authority, according to his obituary.
When he died in 2013, Mayes, an only child, inherited the oil company, and the wealth that came with it. He took up the mantle of civic engagement, as well, but he did it on a Texas-sized scale.
Middleton entered the political fray at a pivotal moment, just as fractures in the Texas Republican Party were beginning to deepen. A new, more hardline arm of the party was on the rise, vying to unseat the moderate, business-centric establishment that helped take the state back from Democrats.
Middleton charged into that fight, donating more than $300,000 over three years to Empower Texans PAC, a growing force at the Capitol that was marshaling major oil and gas money to pull the GOP sharply to the right. Led by its rabble-rousing leader, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Empower Texans threw hundreds of thousands of dollars at primaries to unseat Republican legislators they saw as insufficiently ideological and, over time, ushered in a new generation of uncompromisingly conservative warriors.
Individual candidates from the arch-conservative camp also benefited from Middleton’s money. When the Texas House Freedom Caucus launched in 2017, three-quarters of its initial members had received donations from Middleton; he would eventually support all but one. An outgrowth of the tea party movement, the House Freedom Caucus was created in direct opposition to then-Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican who represented the more moderate, establishment arm of the party.
“If you weren’t part of that, there wasn’t a lot of institutional money available to you,” Krause, one of the caucus’ founding members, said. “Mayes gained a lot of respect, for me and a lot of others, because he was willing to donate to the candidates that weren’t as popular down in Austin, but were fighting for the things that he believed in.”
In 2014, Middleton gave two donations totaling $3,500 to Wayne Faircloth, who represented his home district in Galveston. Just four years later, he decided to primary Faircloth, entering the political arena as a candidate, rather than a donor, for the first time.
That cycle, the average winning Texas House campaign cost $354,000, TransparencyUSA reported. Middleton spent $2.3 million, almost all out of his own pocket, outpacing the second most prolific candidate by more than $700,000.
He won, and joined the Freedom Caucus he initially helped bankroll. His support didn’t stop once he was in the chamber, as he continued to dole out major donations to a wide range of conservative lawmakers. He also gave to conservative causes, backing groups like Texas Values, Texas Right to Life and the Texas GOP itself.
“That says a lot to us, when someone wants to invest in the work that we do and not just support us with words,” said Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values Action, the group’s political arm which is supporting Middleton’s attorney general bid. “Some people, they won’t even attend our events, even Republicans, but with [Middleton], people can see the sincerity of his support for our work and our values.”
In 2021, Middleton began eyeing the Senate seat in his backyard. Incumbent Larry Taylor planned to run again, but dropped out once Middleton made it clear he intended to challenge him.
“I tried to tell him, I’m just going to go one more time, why don’t you wait, but he’s ready to go and wanting to spend a lot of money,” Taylor told the Galveston County Daily News.
And spend a lot, he did. Middleton gave himself $2.5 million that cycle, despite having little in the way of primary opposition and no Democratic challenger.
Funding Paxton opponents
While running for state Senate, Middleton also got involved in the race for the office he now seeks. In 2022, Paxton was up for reelection, but the cloud of legal troubles he’d long operated under was growing ever more concerning for party leaders. Paxton was facing an FBI investigation, after eight of his top aides reported him to the FBI for alleged abuse of office, and he remained under felony indictment for securities fraud.
Krause, long a Paxton ally, joined the growing list of primary challengers seeking to oust the incumbent. His main campaign funder? Middleton.
“We were side-by-side, arm-in-arm, on a lot of those votes in the House, and so I think it was a recognition that he knew what my principles were, he knew how I would attack the office if I were to get into it,” Krause said.
Krause dropped out a few weeks later, after U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert entered the race. Middleton gave Gohmert $300,000, and asked Krause to pass on the remains of his donation, $250,000, to the Gohmert camp.
Paxton was forced into a runoff with Land Commissioner George P. Bush, but ultimately won a third term. The next year, he was impeached by the Texas House. Middleton was reportedly one of several senators considering voting to convict Paxton, although he ultimately joined the majority in acquitting him.
If there was any bad blood between Paxton and Middleton over these clashes, it seems to have dissipated in the years since. According to leaked audio obtained by Texas Bullpen, Paxton said he plans to vote for Middleton.
“From what I understand, those two have talked not just once, but several times since then,” Krause said. “I’m sure those are hard conversations, especially with Attorney General Paxton at the beginning, but he’s willing to have those conversations.”
“Money where his mouth is”
Middleton entered the attorney general’s race last spring, when the field was still taking shape. Almost immediately, he garnered a slew of endorsements from his colleagues in the Legislature — many of whom had won their seats with financial support from Middleton.
Roy has hammered Middleton for “buying endorsements,” as he told voters at the Dripping Springs event, as well as for the sheer scale of money he has poured into this race. A handful of big-name donors have stepped up to support Roy in recent weeks, motivated by frustration that Middleton was using his personal wealth to purchase the seat, the congressman said.
“They felt compelled to back me, not just to level the playing field, but to win,” Roy told The Texas Tribune.
But Joshua Blank, the research director of the Texas Politics Project, said it’s difficult to make that line of attack resonate outside the donor class. Politicians give money to like-minded allies, who often return the favor. That money typically comes from candidates’ campaign coffers, Blank noted.
“I don’t think the voters care where that money originated, whether that was through a federally regulated PAC in which the donors are clearly listed, or whether that money came from a Republican kingmaker of sorts,” Blank said, mentioning the example of Gov. Greg Abbott unleashing his war chest to unseat lawmakers opposed to school vouchers.
Roy has also criticized Middleton as unqualified for the role. While Roy worked as a federal prosecutor, and as Paxton’s first assistant at the attorney general’s office, Middleton has a law degree and has been licensed to practice in Texas since 2008, but has worked exclusively for his family company. Middleton’s many endorsers reject that argument, saying he has the temperament and executive leadership know-how needed to run the agency.
“People know him and have faith in his ability to lead, and he’s shown a commitment to working on things at the state level and connecting with people and the party around the state,” Saenz said. “His track record is what’s getting voters to go to the polls. It takes more than just the ability to fund a campaign.”
Typically, self-funded campaigns underperform compared to more traditional campaigns, in part because donors are engaged voters and raising money activates their networks as well, Blank said. But Middleton has bucked that trend, which is a sign that his message is resonating, no matter who is paying to get it out there.
“It would be silly to say that his profile as a donor hasn’t helped his rise in the party,” Blank said. “But it’s also the case that his willingness to put his money where his mouth is and support the MAGA message is of value to Republicans who believe it’s a value.”
