Surging Cruz Is Big Oil's New Crush as Donors Cool to Bush
- Fracking's Wilks, Quantum Energy's Neugebauer back Texan
- Clinton is third, in sign of industry `hedging their bets'
Senator Ted Cruz greets attendees as he leaves a campaign stop at Seneca Family Restaurant in Seneca, South Carolina, on Feb. 17, 2016.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergU.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.