Beto O’Rourke, the failed Democratic presidential candidate now running for governor of Texas, is being sued by a billionaire Dallas energy executive over claims he made following a deadly power outage.
Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren filed the defamation suit in February over O’Rourke’s claim that energy companies made big profits during the deadly 2021 winter storm and then made campaign donations to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whom O’Rourke faces in this year’s gubernatorial election.
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The Texas power grid failed during the February 2021 storm, leaving millions without power and driving energy prices up. Hundreds of state residents died.
WHAT WAS BEHIND THE DANGEROUS POWER OUTAGES IN TEXAS?
As natural gas prices skyrocketed, Energy Transfer reportedly made billions, and Warren, a longtime Republican, donated $1 million to Abbott’s reelection campaign.
A spokesperson for Abbott told the Dallas Morning News his campaign is “in no way involved” in Warren’s defamation suit.
O’Rourke said he is being sued for “telling the truth and connecting the dots between the profits [Warren] made, the contributions he’s then made to Greg Abbott, and the policy that has been followed.”
“Greg Abbott and his top donors don’t want us talking about the fact that he took $4.6 million in campaign checks after allowing corporations to make billions in illegal profits while Texans froze to death in their homes,” O’Rourke tweeted earlier this week.
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Abbott and O’Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso, easily won their primaries last week and will face each other in the November election.
