WASHINGTON — Ongoing scrutiny of Justice Clarence Thomas has drawn yet another Dallas billionaire into the spotlight — though unlike real estate magnate Harlan Crow, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is hardly averse to publicity.
Jones’ affinity for the Supreme Court’s most conservative member isn’t much of a surprise, either, in light of campaign donations that have gone almost exclusively to Texas Republicans over the years.
Jones, worth almost $14 billion, opened his checkbook wider than ever ahead of last fall, sending $900,000 to help reelect Texas’ top three officials. That included $525,000 to Gov. Greg Abbott, plus $200,000 each to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton, the attorney general who has since been impeached and suspended from office.
That’s a big chunk of the roughly $4 million donated by Jones, his wife, and their children since he bought the Cowboys in early 1989, according to a search Wednesday of state and federal election reports.
The tally puts Jones well short of mega-donor territory.
A spokesman for the Cowboys declined to comment on Jones’ relationship with Thomas, or on how he picks recipients for campaign donations.
The New York Times linked Jones and Thomas in a deep-dive Sunday into the justice’s affiliation with the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, an elite group with “rags-to-riches” life stories.
Jones was inducted in 2014. Thomas was inducted in 1992, the year after President George H.W. Bush named him to the nation’s highest court.
“Over the years, he flew in Mr. Jones’s private jet. Mr. Jones gave him a Super Bowl ring. He attended the Cowboys’ training camp, and when the team played in Washington, he sat in the owner’s box,” The Times noted.
All of that pales beside the Crow-Thomas revelations.
In March, ProPublica reported that Crow had provided lavish vacations for two decades to Thomas. In May, it reported that Crow spent up to $6,000 a month on boarding school for Thomas’ grandnephew, for whom the justice was the legal guardian.
Thomas reported none of that on his annual financial disclosure reports.
He has asserted that the rules did not require even the most lavish gifts to be reported in the context of a genuine friendship.
Lawmakers in both parties have demanded greater transparency from the justices. Some want tighter ethics rules to preclude such generosity at all, disclosed or not.
The $900,000 that Jones donated last fall to Texas’ top three officials was no secret.
His previous donations had been more modest, though over the years it has added up.
Some highlights:
Presidential races
Jones has mostly stayed out of presidential contests.
In 2008, he backed Sen. John McCain, giving the $2,300 maximum allowed in the primaries and in the fall, when the Arizona Republican lost to Barack Obama.
Four years later, he maxed out with the next GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, at $2,500.
There’s no sign of any donations to Donald Trump.
A handful of other 2024 White House contenders have been on Jones’ list in years past, among them:
Asa Hutchinson got $18,000 from Jones and his three kids in 2018 when he became Arkansas governor.
Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, got $2,700 a few months before he dropped out of the 2016 presidential race.
Texans in Congress
Jones hasn’t donated to either of Texas’ current senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, though his son Stephen Jones, a team executive, has given $10,000 to Cornyn.
Over the years, Jones has donated to a number of U.S. House members from North Texas, including one Democrat: Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas, a former NFL player.
Allred, who’s angling for Cruz’s Senate seat next year, got $5,000 in late 2018 — two months after he ousted GOP Rep. Pete Sessions.
Jones had backed Sessions for years, along with fellow Republicans Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Lance Gooden of Terrell, Joe Barton of Ennis (now retired) and the late Sam Johnson.
Jones has a habit of making amends after backing the wrong horse.
In 2010, Jones’ wife Gene and daughter Charlotte Jones, also a team executive, each gave $12,500 to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in her bid to unseat Gov. Rick Perry. Perry trounced her in the primary.
Two months after Perry won reelection, extending a streak that would make him the state’s longest serving governor, Jerry Jones hosted a campaign event, to the tune of $5,664.
Way less for Democrats
A handful of other Democrats have received checks from Jones over the years.
State Sens. Royce West of Dallas and John Whitmire of Houston each got $1,000 in 2000.
In Arkansas, Jones and his daughter gave a combined $12,000 in 2010 to Mike Beebe, the Democratic governor. But the same year, he gave $40,000 to Republican Meg Whitman’s campaign for governor in California.
He’s opened his checkbook wider for Republicans.
In 2018, for instance, Jones gave $115,000 to Abbott in his bid for a second term as governor. That’s over 10 times more than he’d given when Abbott won the job four years earlier, though a fraction of last fall’s outlay.
Last October, he hosted a fundraiser for Abbott at the Cowboys’ headquarters in Frisco.
Since 2002, Jones and his family have given $1.8 million to HillCo PAC, which is connected to a lobbying firm in Austin that does work for the Cowboys.
Jones and his wife also gave $25,000 to Republican Luisa Del Rosal, who lost to Dallas Rep. John Turner in 2020.
Races outside Texas
Federal law does cap donations, unlike Texas law for state contests.
Jones has played at both levels.
In September, Gene and Jerry Jones, each gave $2,900 to former Cowboys running back Herschel Walker’s campaign for Senate in Georgia. So did Jones’ son Stephen Jones. Each of the three also gave $12,900 to Georgia Victory PAC, too.
And Jerry Jones gave $10,000 to the Georgia Republican Party.
Walker, accused by two women of encouraging and paying for their abortions — in contrast to his anti-abortion stance as a candidate, lost in a runoff.
