AUSTIN, Texas — After the Uvalde school shooting, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott spent nearly three hours in Huntsville at a campaign fundraiser that he was criticized for not canceling.
But the governor didn’t touch down and quickly depart, as he implied, after news outlets reported he’d gone ahead with the May 24 fundraiser at a private home in East Texas. Some expected Abbott to instead rush to the South Texas town where residents awaited news about unaccounted-for relatives.
The following day, Abbott said the stop in Huntsville was to “let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go” to Austin to continue working with law enforcement on the response to the 21 killings at Robb Elementary School.
Newly obtained campaign finance reports and flight-tracking records show that Abbott, using northeast Texas rancher-businessman Ricky Baker’s loaned jet, arrived in Huntsville at 4:52 p.m. on May 24. He was driven about two miles to a local supporter’s house and didn’t depart the city until 7:47 p.m.
On Thursday, Abbott campaign spokeswoman Renae Eze was asked about the governor’s statements suggesting he only briefly stopped en route from a news conference about wildfires in Abilene. Although Abbott said Huntsville was “on the way,” it’s actually 150 miles east of Austin.
Eze, insisting Abbott had been forthright about his movements that day, took aim at his Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke.
“Unlike Beto O’Rourke who took advantage of the tragedy in Uvalde by increasing his fundraising efforts and resorting to political stunts, Governor Abbott canceled all political activity, including fundraising,” Eze said in a written statement.
Earlier, Abbott spokesmen said the Republican governor spoke by phone on the day of the shooting with President Joe Biden and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“The Governor spoke with the President, Secretary Mayorkas, law enforcement, and staff throughout the afternoon and evening, including on the ground in Huntsville,” Eze said Thursday. “The day after the tragedy, the Governor traveled to Uvalde and met with law enforcement and local officials. The Governor’s description of his movements that day are accurate.”
Abbott has been dogged by the Uvalde massacre, with criticism of his decision to go forward with the fundraiser, his inaccurate early statements that police heroically responded to the shooter and his deferring to the Texas Legislature to frame policy responses that might avert repetitions of mass killings.
At the Huntsville event, Abbott may have raised as much as $50,000, according to his campaign finance report covering Feb. 20 to June 30, which he filed with the Texas Ethics Commission on July 15. That doesn’t include an in-kind donation of meal and party expenses worth almost $6,900 from the host, Huntsville designer and chef Jeff Bradley.
After The Dallas Morning News on Thursday sought to reach a half-dozen possible attendees of the event – Huntsville residents who gave to Abbott between May 9 and May 26 – Bradley protested.
“I would appreciate it if you would refrain from contacting my guests who attended the dinner in my home,” Bradley, who according to Ethics Commission records has thrown five parties for Abbott since late 2017, said in a text message. “This was a private event.”
Eze did not dispute flight-tracking information that, by process of elimination, shows Abbott flew from Abilene at 4:11 p.m. in a Cessna Citation Jet CJ4 registered under Avtex Holdings LLC of Mount Pleasant. It’s owned by Baker, who since June 2014 has given Abbott almost $120,000. Of that, $70,000 were in-kind contributions for eight previous uses of his private jet.
On Thursday, Baker did not respond to messages left at his business, KRB Investments, and on his personal phone.
When asked at a news conference in Uvalde on May 25 why he didn’t cancel the Walker County fundraiser, Abbott noted he had been in Abilene when he learned of an 18-year-old gunman’s rampage that killed 19 third- and fourth-graders and two teachers.
“On the way back to Austin, I stopped and let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go,” Abbott said. “And I wanted them to know what happened and get back to Austin so that I could continue my collaboration with Texas law enforcement to make sure that all the needs were being met here in the Uvalde area.”
O’Rourke, the former El Paso congressman who is trying to deny Abbott a third term, interrupted the news conference, yelling at Abbott, “This is on you.”
Although both candidates say they suspended overt politicking in the days and weeks after the Uvalde horror, Abbott spokesman Mark Miner said Thursday that O’Rourke ramped up his appeals for campaign contributions in Facebook ads in the days immediately following the mass shooting.
O’Rourke spent between $618,000 and $825,000 on Facebook ads between May 24 and June 1, Miner said. Some of the ads mentioned guns and Uvalde, he noted.
O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans, though, said the Democrat mentioned Uvalde only in ads that asked the public to RSVP and attend five “Protect Texas Kids” town halls he held in the wake of the mass shooting.
“We’re always spending money on Facebook,” Evans said. “Their accusation is that we spent money to capitalize off of Uvalde. We in fact chose not to do that.”
Speaking of the Abbott camp, Evans said, “They’re trying to kick dust up around this. They’re trying to get people to look at that instead of (Abbott’s) not going to a single funeral and not going back to the community, not calling a special session even though the school board and the city council have now passed unanimous resolutions asking him to.”
Since May 24, Abbott has visited Uvalde four times.
As Eze told The Houston Chronicle earlier this month, Abbott has visited “with every family that requested a meeting. … Many families requested private funerals, and the Governor and first lady instead sent flowers and condolences to let the loved ones know they remain in their prayers.”
(Austin correspondent Allie Morris contributed to this report.)
