Corrected: Trent McKnight’s donors

The May primary was not kind to the GOP establishment. Powerful incumbents lost their seats at a higher than normal rate and many targeted open seats broke to conservatives. Now the insiders are scrambling to secure needed runoff wins.

In our continuing look at money dropped into House runoffs since entering electoral overtime, we turn our attention again to Trent McKnight. As expected big PACs appear on McKnight’s most recent campaign filings along with a fresh face and late a endorsement of note.

Trent McKnight is in a runoff with Drew Springer seeking to fill an open seat vacated by Rick Hardcastle. We’ve previously written about McKnight and his straightforward support for revenue increases.

In the last nine weeks one of the largest contributors to McKnight has been Texans for Economic Development. Misleading name aside, this group lobbies for expanded gambling in Texas, an activity which will not develop our economy. The PAC has given $5,000 to McKnight’s bid.

Matching TED’s involvement, Texas Parent PAC has also given $5,000 to McKnight this summer. As noted yesterday, the Parent PAC gives exclusively to liberal Republicans and Democrats.

Two more notable donations come from Texas Hospital PAC ($2,000) and the Texas Association of Realtor’s “TREPAC” ($1,000). Both of these groups worked to defeat conservative candidates this primary cycle.

Newcomer political donor Salem Abraham has also given to McKnight. Abraham is the campaign treasurer in the effort to oust stalwart conservative Representative Jim Landtroop. Salem has loaned or given Ken King over $100,000 to defeat Landtroop. Landtroop’s challenge was orchestrated by Speaker Joe Straus, and included a radically redrawn district.

This article is part of a series examining campaign finance reports.

Correction: On Wednesday August 1, Mr. Abraham contacted AgendaWise claiming he was not forcefully removed by DPS agents, as an earlier version of this story claimed. According to Mr. Abraham, he was asked to leave by campaign personnel, voluntarily cooperated, and DPS wasn’t involved. The portion about Mr. Abraham’s exit has been omitted.