This article is Part 4 of a four-part series demonstrating how the money in a lobby sector can impact state politics and legislation. Read the first three articles here, here, and here.

Our new “Money Behind the Committee Chair” series spotlights the Texas lawmakers chairing prominent committees during the 87th Legislative Session, and the individual donors and PACs who have supported their campaigns leading up to this session. 

Texas politicians and PACs are required to file reports with the Texas Ethics Commission listing all their campaign contributions and expenditures. The most recent reports — which include all transactions for the last half of 2018 — were just released. Two major things to pay attention to in these reports: 1) final numbers on both donations and spending for the 2018 Election Cycle, and 2) perhaps even more interesting, a list of all donations made to Texas politicians after the election.