REPORT: Texas Group Exposed as Democrat-Funded While Targeting Paxton

While national Republican groups are pouring millions of dollars into Texas to help Attorney General Ken Paxton win the state’s U.S. Senate race, one of the most powerful business-backed conservative political organizations in Texas is staying out of it, and new reporting shows it has a long record of working against him.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), which presents itself as a conservative legal-reform group, spent years opposing Paxton and backing candidates who challenged him. According to new reporting from The Daily Signal, TLR spent more than $3 million in 2022 backing Paxton’s primary challenger for attorney general. This year, TLR supported Sen. John Cornyn in the Senate primary. The Daily Signal also identifies TLR as the eighth-largest donor to Democrats in Texas, giving $6.3 million to 144 Democratic candidates, including Jasmine Crockett.

To date, TLR has not joined the general election effort, even as Senate Leadership Fund and MAGA Inc. spend heavily for the Trump-endorsed nominee.

The questions don’t stop with the organization, they extend to the people who run it too.

Former TLR president and co-founder Dick Trabulsi began his career as a staffer for President Jimmy Carter, and Texas Scorecard reported in 2024 that Trabulsi was still a registered Democrat. The Dallas Morning News reported that Trabulsi may have been behind the effort to impeach Paxton in 2023, with allies pointing to a message Trabulsi sent to one of Paxton’s whistleblowing deputies as evidence that TLR worked behind the scenes on the 2023 impeachment.

TLR’s Form 990 filings show the group was headquartered from 2005 to 2022 in a Houston building owned by RJT Office Partnership, a Trabulsi entity. TLR paid the partnership $526,072 in rent over that period, on top of more than $4.5 million in compensation paid to Trabulsi directly.

In 2014 and 2015, the Texas Ethics Commission fined Trabulsi, TLR PAC, and several staff members and lobbyists for reporting violations. These included failing to disclose contributors’ full names.

Current president and general counsel Lee Parsley gave $1,250 to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. In 2011, he argued against an amendment that would have barred Texas courts from considering foreign religious law. In 2021, he testified against HB 155, a bill that would have let employees sue over COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The Texas Tribune reported that he told lawmakers businesses had no way around federal rules.

Co-founder David Weekley’s homebuilding company is facing a federal lawsuit from former employee Jacob Edwards. Edwards alleges he was fired after being mobilized with the Texas Army National Guard for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border mission. The complaint alleges a project manager said the deployment was “not good for the company.” Weekley has separately supported illegal migrants, stating publicly that many American industries depend on immigrant laborers.

Board members Marc Watts and Jeff Shellebarger signed a 2017 Greater Houston Partnership letter urging Abbott not to sign the so-called bathroom bill. In 2021, Watts chaired the partnership’s COVID-19 task force and signed an email encouraging local businesses to consider requiring employee vaccinations.

Several board members have also donated to Democrats. Watts gave to Democrat John Whitmire’s state Senate and Houston mayoral campaigns. JJ Isbell gave $5,000 each to Whitmire and former state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. Fred Heldenfels IV gave $7,500 to Democratic state Sen. Juan Hinojosa, alongside $89,500 to Abbott.

Republicans see Texas as essential to holding the Senate majority, and national GOP groups have made the race a priority. TLR’s decision to stay out of the general election has drawn questions from the right about why an organization claiming to advance conservative ideas in Texas is undermining their own Republican nominee while funding Democrats.

For a group that has spent decades presenting itself as a pillar of conservative policy in the state, this new reporting suggests that if Ken Paxton loses in November, donors and allies know exactly who to blame.