Across the 10 states included in Transparency USA’s database, several prominent women dominated donor lists in the 2020 election cycle. Some, like Karla Jurvetson and Deborah Simon, targeted key state-level elections across multiple swing states. Others focused their contributions closer to home, supporting candidates and PACs in their state of residence. While Transparency USA focuses on state-level campaign finance, all of these women have supported federal candidates and causes as well. See those contributions here.

On June 5, voters in Fort Worth elected Mattie Parker, former chief of staff to Mayor Betsy Price, to replace outgoing Price as the city’s top elected official. In a runoff election that saw over 88,000 voters cast ballots, Parker took 54 percent of the votes to win this expensive and closely-watched contest against Deborah Peoples, former Democratic Party chair for Tarrant County.

In session and out, lobbying is by far the biggest source of money in Texas politics. Taxpayers foot a sizable chunk of the bill, accounting for as much as $110 million (over 16 percent of the total reported lobbying money) during the 2020 election cycle time period. Another $70,429,959 (also around 16 percent of the total) has spent using taxpayer dollars in the 2021 so far.