Stogner Seizes Huge Lead
in Campaign Cash for OT

Primary Runoff Fundraising

Capitol Inside
May 17, 2022

Republican Sarah Stogner rocketed to a massive lead in fundraising on Tuesday in a primary runoff battle with Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian with a massive infusion of campaign cash in the past six days after declining to accept contributions with only one tiny exception until now.

Stogner reported an in-kind donation of almost $1.7 million from Houston resident Ashley Wyatt on the statement that she filed on Monday with the Texas Ethics Commission for the overtime fight with Christian. The RRC challenger listed a contribution of $332,724 from Wyatt on a special report she submitted to the state on May 13.

With a $124 contribution from the Bowie County Patriots in March, Stogner has generated more than $2 million for a maiden political voyage against an incumbent who entered the runoff with a 32-point lead over the most unconventional challenger that any Texas politician on either side of the aisle has faced in modern times.

After taking the race for granted with a campaign on cruise control, Christian rounded up nearly $529,000 from supporters for the OT clash with Stogner at the polls next Tuesday. Christian has raised less than $1.1 million for the re-election race since the start of 2021. C

Christian had almost $341,000 in reserve for the final eight days of the race compared to none for Stogner. But she could be poised for a fundraising bonanza in the closing stretch of the race.

Outside the Texarkana tea party group, Stogner's only other contributor so far owns a cattle ranch in Monahans where the RRC hopeful practices law. Wyatt had no history of political giving based on state and federal records before intervening in the fight for one of three seats on the state commission that regulates the energy industry in Texas. But Wyatt and Stogner have been upset about the pollution of water in West Texas due to lax regulations on fracking and other oil and gas production methods.

The windfall appeared to be the second part of a novel strategy that Stogner kicked off with a video on Super Bowl weekend that showed her riding an oil pump jack in cowboy boots and hat and underwear with pasties on her chest. The monumentally bold move made Stogner an overnight social media sensation - and after appearing on track for last place in a field of five in round one - she seized a spot in overtime with 15 percent of the initial vote on March 1.

The San Antonio Express-News helped fuel Stogner's skyrocketing from political unknown from Twitter superstar with an endorsement that it dished out to her on the day before she posted the semi-nude clip on Tiktok and rescinded several days after it aired.

But Stogner had appeared to be losing momentum as the runoff unfolded - sparking speculation on whether she had another major weapon up her sleeve. Capitol Inside has predicted that Stogner would be sufficiently funded to be competitive in OT despite the no contributions vow that she'd touted to show that she wouldn't be indebted to the oil and gas industry like Christian and other Republican railroad commissioners have been.

Stogner's central campaign themes have been cleaning up a culture of corruption at the RRC, protecting the environment with common-sense regulations while strengthening the industry at the same time.

No one could have imagined, however, that Stogner would raise almost double the number of donor dollars that Christian has a former Texas House member who was elected to the statewide post in 2016.

more to come ...