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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke said Monday that Kelcy Warren, the Dallas pipeline tycoon and top donor to Gov. Greg Abbott, is suing O’Rourke over his criticism of the windfall profits that Warren’s company made after the 2021 winter storm.
During a news conference in Dallas, O’Rourke said Warren is alleging defamation and trying to “use his billions of dollars to try to shut me down and shut us up from telling the story of what happened to the people of Texas.”
“We are not backing down,” O’Rourke said, calling the lawsuit “frivolous.”
The Texas Tribune was not immediately able to obtain a copy of the lawsuit Monday afternoon. Court records confirm that Warren has sued O’Rourke in state district court in San Saba County. A lawyer for Warren did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Abbott’s campaign.
O’Rourke has centered his campaign on the February 2021 power grid collapse that left millions of Texans freezing in the dark and led to hundreds of deaths. Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners reportedly made $2.4 billion off the storm as demand for gas soared.
Months later, Warren cut a $1 million check to Abbott’s reelection campaign. The contribution came in the earliest possible days that Abbott was allowed to accept campaign donations after the grid failure.
“All I have done today and all I have done over the course of the campaign is share these facts” with voters, O’Rourke said Monday, arguing that “when we connect the dots and follow the money, we see that Greg Abbott has put profits over people.”
O’Rourke said he would use campaign funds to defend himself and that he was not worried about the cost because he finds the lawsuit “so frivolous.”
“We are on the most solid ground possible,” O’Rourke said.
Disclosure: Energy Transfer has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
