Two billionaire Texas brothers whose fortunes derive from oil and gas fracking have pumped millions of dollars into rightwing media outfits that have promoted climate-crisis denialism and sent more big checks to back an array of evangelical projects and conservative Texas politicians.
The fracking billionaires Farris and Dan Wilks have each doled out millions of dollars through separate foundations over the last decade to a number of high-profile conservative and religious groups including the Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
“Thanks to their incredible wealth and largesse, the country as well as the [Republican] party are now feeling the effects of their aggressive brand of religiously-charged political activism,” said Darren Dochuk, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame and author of Anointed with Oil.
Farris Wilks and his wife control the Thirteen Foundation, while Dan Wilks and his wife lead the Heavenly Fathers Foundation, both of which have been funded with proceeds from the 2011 sale of their majority stake in Frac Tech Services for $3.2bn.
Since they created their foundations, six- and seven-figure checks from the Wilks brothers have bolstered numerous pro-fossil fuel and evangelical projects.
The Wilks brothers, for instance, have poured millions of dollars into PragerU and the Daily Wire, two rightwing media outlets that have promoted wide-ranging conservative agendas, including climate crisis denialism to school-age kids and adults via short videos, articles and other materials.
The two brothers have given at least $8m to PragerU, which is unaccredited, according to Texas financial records. In July, Florida approved the use of what PragerU has called its “edutainment” videos and other materials for use in its classrooms, and PragerU has said it is trying to get other states, including Texas, to do likewise.
In 2015, Farris Wilks gave $4.7m to help launch the Daily Wire and remains an owner of the media company, whose founding editor and co-owner Ben Shapiro has forged ties with Dennis Prager, the PragerU founder and talkshow host. Shapiro and Prager are slated to attend a PragerU “founders’ retreat” in September for donors who give at least $100,000 a year.
Historically, the two brothers have also backed a number of rightwing Texas Republicans including Senator Ted Cruz, whose abortive run for president in 2016 was bolstered by $15m they gave to a pro-Cruz Super Pac.
More recent tax reports from the two foundations underscore their deep pockets.
The Thirteen Foundation donated about $5m in 2021 and ended the year with close to $60m in assets. By contrast, the Heavenly Fathers Foundation gave away just under $11m in fiscal year 2022 and ended the year with about $187m in assets.
The evangelical ties of the Wilks brothers are deep and personal. Farris Wilks is a preacher in Cisco, Texas, a town of approximately 3,000 people, where he leads the Assembly of Yahweh Seventh Day church, which was founded by his father and interprets the Bible literally while embracing Old and New Testament teachings.
Farris Wilks has railed against homosexuality, which he deems a sin. According to recordings of his sermons, homosexuality is “a perversion tantamount to bestiality, pedophilia and incest”.
Farris Wilks also seems to equate the climate crisis with God’s will. “If [God] wants the polar caps to remain in place, then he will leave them there,” he said to worshippers at a 2013 service.
To promote his evangelical views, Farris Wilks and his brother have donated millions of dollars to several conservative Christian groups including Liberty Counsel, Heartbeat International and Family Talk.
Scholars who have studied the influence of big oil and the US right credit the Wilks brothers with playing a growing role in funding and shaping the conservative and evangelical right in Texas and nationally.
“The Wilks brothers epitomize the new strain of religious-right culture-warring that has taken hold of the GOP. Blending fierce allegiance to free-market economics with equally fierce commitment to social conservatism [and] anti-statist rage with Christian nationalist sentiments, they seek to draw the church itself (not just church folk) into battle for control of the country,” said Dochuk.
“What makes the Wilks’ strain of religious-right politics so potent and impactful is its striking range of priorities, including abortion, gay rights and the broader crusade for traditional family values. Significantly, the Wilks’ big checks are also aimed at influencing the politics of climate and environment, energy and extraction, to protect fossil fuel interests.”
To be sure, the Wilks brothers’ big checks have both long-term conservative ideological goals and short-term political ones.
In recent years in Texas, the Wilks brothers – often in tandem with another billionaire, the Texas fossil-fuel mogul Tim Dunn – have poured millions of dollars into nonprofits like Defend Texas Liberty and Empower Texans to push their ultraconservative social and political views.
Defend Texas Liberty, for instance, has donated about $3m to the state’s Lt Gov Dan Patrick, who will be the acting judge at the upcoming Texas senate trial of the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton, who in May was impeached by the Texas house on bribery, abuse of power and other charges.
Patrick received a $2m loan and a $1m donation from Defend Texas Liberty Pac, according to recent Texas records.
The Pac is well-known for funding conservative challengers to Texas house GOP members and, in a recent campaign filing, reported receiving a $1.5m check from Farris Wilks and his wife and close to $2m dollars from Dunn.
Defend Texas Liberty has been blunt about its anger over Paxton’s impeachment.
“Defend Texas Liberty will ensure that every Republican voter in Texas knows just what a sham the Texas house has been this session and just how absurd this last minute Democrat led impeachment effort is,” the group said in a 26 May tweet.
Experts who follow the influence of the Wilks brothers say their sprawling agendas and big checks spark strong concerns.
“Farris and Dan Wilks, who believe their billions were given to them by God, have spent the last decade working to advance a dominionist ideology by funding far-right organizations and politicians that seek to dismiss climate change as ‘God’s will’, remove choice, demonize the LGBTQ community, and tear down public education, all to turn America into a country that gives preference to and imposes their extreme beliefs on everyone,” said Chris Tackett, a Texas-based campaign finance analyst.
“The goal of [the] Wilks and those that share their ideology is to gain control of levers of power and control information. That’s why they invest heavily into politicians, agenda-driven non-profits and media organizations like PragerU and the Daily Wire. It is all connected.”
Dochuk voices similar concerns.
“The Wilks brothers aren’t the only ones with oil and gas ties to question climate change science from a position of self-interest; with so much invested in hydrocarbon society, their pro-fossil fuel, anti-climate-crisis science position only makes sense. Where the Wilks take things further, however, is their articulation of climate change denialism in theological terms, as if we are all destined by God for a future of environmental ruin we have no responsibility for and can’t control. The force of their advocacy, informing PragerU, the Daily Wire and other conservative media outlets, is what makes their influence so penetrating and paralyzing, and insidious.”
