Public Citizen Report: Abbott Donors Draw Nearly $1 Billion in No-Bid State Contracts
Contracts were awarded as part of the governor’s emergency declarations and were not subject to the state’s standard procurement process
AUSTIN, Texas — A new Public Citizen report released today finds that donors to Gov. Greg Abbott’s political action committee, Texans for Greg Abbott PAC, have received approximately $950 million in no-bid state contracts awarded under the governor’s emergency declarations.
The report, Awarding Influence, examines no-bid contracts awarded from 2020 to 2024 during declared emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, border security, and Hurricane Beryl. In total, Public Citizen’s research found that 89 contracts were awarded to Texans for Greg Abbott donors. The donations were made by companies, their subsidiaries, and their political action committees, their officers and executives, as well as the spouses of their officers and executives who have given to Abbott’s campaign since 2014, the year Abbott first ran for governor.
“People lose faith in their government when they see a system that appears to benefit those who can buy access to elected officials,” said Adrian Shelley, the Texas director of Public Citizen. “Even when no laws are broken, insider dealing undermines confidence in state government. People conclude that the government works for wealthy people first and everyday Texans second. There are simple safeguards that lawmakers could implement to avoid apparent conflicts of interest while still allowing the state to respond quickly to emergencies.”
“The timing of the contributions is suspect,” said Andrew Cates, a Texas attorney and government ethics expert. “The groups were awarded the contracts after they made large contributions to the governor or his SPAC. If it were the other way around, it could be viewed as a thank-you contribution, but this way feels much more pay-to-play when procurement money flows quickly after large contributions. Especially egregious is the $1.6 million set of contracts labeled as “fees”. At a minimum, we need laws that are enforced which require more thorough reporting of these contracts that can’t be summed up in a single vague word like ‘fees’ or ‘consulting.’”
The largest single recipient of no-bid contracts detailed in the report is Gothams LLC, an emergency management company that advertises responses to natural disasters, border security, and more. In 2021 and 2022, Gothams received a total of almost $640 million in no-bid contracts. In 2022, when pandemic contracts began to slow, Gothams only received one contract worth $43 million. The same year, the company’s founder, Matthew Michelsen, started contributing large sums of money to Texans for Greg Abbott, which now totals $600,000. In the two years following Michelsen’s donations, his company received an additional 10 no-bid contracts worth $66 million.
In another example, Doggett Freightliners, owned by Abbott donor William “Leslie” Doggett, received two contracts for $1.6 million. Both contracts’ purposes were simply listed as for “fees.” The state awarded one of the contracts in the days after a $500,000 donation to Abbott’s PAC made by William “Leslie” Doggett, whom Abbott later appointed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
“These are just two examples of the eight instances we’ve identified where Abbott donors were awarded non-competitive contracts,” said Cassidy Levin, a Public Citizen research fellow who helped gather the information in the report. “All of the companies identified in this report, either through corporate PACs or individuals affiliated with the company, contributed significant amounts to Texans for Greg Abbott, a PAC affiliated with Greg Abbott, between February 2014 and June 2025. Lawmakers should adopt stronger restrictions on pay-to-play practices in government contracting and implement reporting requirements for the governor’s office in the aftermath of an emergency.”
Public Citizen made the following recommended changes to the state’s procurement rules to avoid the appearance of impropriety:
- A ban on no-bid contract awards to companies whose PACs, officers, and immediate family members of officers have made political contributions above a given threshold within the last election cycle.
- Recipients of no-bid contracts, their PACs, their officers, and their immediate family members should not be allowed to make political contributions above a given threshold for a set period of time.
- More thorough and transparent reporting of the award of non-competitive contracts after a disaster declaration.
- Penalties for noncompliance include contract forfeiture and a ban on future contract eligibility for serious violators.
Key elements of a strong procurement process reform include a broad definition of contractors subject to the restrictions, which includes senior executive personnel, disclosure requirements that allow for compliance monitoring, and penalties, including contract forfeiture and bans for serious violations.
Public Citizen will incorporate such reforms into its legislative agenda when the state’s legislature convenes again in regular session.