Ted Cruz Is Big Oil's New BFF As Prior Golden Boy Bush Bubbles Under
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the first-term Republican from Texas, leads all candidates in the scramble for oil industry campaign cash, surpassing Jeb Bush, whose father and brother were West Texas oilmen before they became presidents.
Cruz leads all presidential candidates in contributions from employees of oil and natural gas companies through the end of 2015, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. His coffers have been boosted by scores of smaller gifts and $25 million to super-PACs that back his campaign from two sources: energy investor Toby Neugebauer and Dan and Farris Wilks, brothers who made their fortune in the fracking boom.
Industry donations are following the surprise story line of the 2016 presidential race which has seen upstart Republican candidates Cruz and Donald Trump beating all establishment favorites. Cruz won the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and was third in New Hampshire Feb. 9, where Trump prevailed. Bush’s campaign has languished.
“If you line up the priorities of the hydrocarbons industry, they fit almost perfectly with Cruz’s positions," Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston, said in an interview. “It’s a natural policy fit.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-02-18/surging-cruz-is-big-oil-s-new-crush-as-donors-cool-to-bush
