Dick Weekley Spent Years Fighting Ken Paxton. Last Night He Told Houston to Vote for Him.

Last night at 6:41, Dick Weekley sent out his "November 2026 Voting Recommendations" and asked everyone on his list to forward it to family and friends.

If you don't know the name: Weekley co-founded Texans for Lawsuit Reform and David Weekley Homes. In Houston Republican politics, nobody's money goes further. And for most of the last four years, a lot of that money went toward beating Ken Paxton.

Here's what his email says about the Senate race:

U.S. Senate: Ken Paxton - Regardless of the personal flaws of an individual candidate, the consequences of losing control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats would be catastrophic for our country... Reasonable minds can differ on this recommendation and that's okay.

Dick Weekley has chosen Ken Paxton. Think about what that means coming from him.

The man who bankrolled the fight against Paxton

This isn't a donor who has been quietly sitting out. Weekley and TLR put real money against Paxton, again and again.

• 2022 primary. Weekley personally spent more than $1.1 million against Paxton, and TLR put about $3 million behind Eva Guzman's challenge. Weekley's line at the time: "We want Paxton to win and will vote for him but this time others can save him like we did in 2018." Guzman finished under 20%.
• 2023 impeachment. After the House impeached Paxton 121-23, TLR urged the Senate not to dismiss the charges: "Texans deserve a trial." Paxton's team put Weekley on its list of possible witnesses and called TLR the architect of the impeachment. TLR denies orchestrating it. The Senate acquitted Paxton on every article.
• 2026 primary. Weekley gave to Texans for a Conservative Majority, the super PAC that spent $25 million against Paxton. TLR backed Cornyn.

Weekley didn't impeach anyone. He bankrolled the effort to stop Paxton. Last night he picked Paxton anyway.

Same list, same money

Scroll down Weekley's guide and you hit two familiar names:

That isn't a coincidence. Weekley's TLR PAC is the #1 donor to both of them, according to Texas Ethics Commission data compiled by Transparency USA:

• Lacey Hull (HD 138): $1,685,405 from TLR PAC since 2015.
• Mano DeAyala (HD 133): $814,934 from TLR PAC, plus $72,500 from Weekley personally.

Both voted aye on impeachment in May 2023. In March, DeAyala was on Cornyn's list of 31 Republican legislators endorsing him, listed as "Mano DeAyala, Texas State Representative (R-Houston)."

That was the primary. Paxton won it. Since then, the impeachment managers themselves, Jeff Leach, Briscoe Cain, and Cody Vasut, have lined up behind Paxton, along with Speaker Dustin Burrows and Rep. Matt Shaheen. And now the donor who paid for their campaigns has, too.

West Houston already voted

The voters in these two districts settled this in May. In the one-on-one runoff:

• HD 133: Paxton 52.48%, Cornyn 47.52%
• HD 138: Paxton 60.40%, Cornyn 39.60%

In the 2022 general, Paxton carried both districts by more than eight points.

Ken Paxton wins

The data on Paxton is simple. He has been on a statewide ballot four times, and he has never lost a statewide nomination or a general election.

He has also carried HD 133 and HD 138 in every general election and every runoff he has run: 2014, 2018, 2022, and 2026. Three times he has beaten a big-money establishment Republican, and in this year's runoff that was an incumbent U.S. senator. Betting against Ken Paxton has been a losing trade for twelve years, and Dick Weekley just stopped making it.

So what's the excuse now?

For months, the silence from some West Houston Republicans had a convenient cover: the money people weren't with Paxton. That cover is gone. The biggest money man in Houston Republican politics, the one who spent millions trying to beat Paxton, just told his whole list to vote for him and to pass it along.

Weekley says reasonable minds can differ. Fine. But Mano DeAyala and Lacey Hull are on his list, they're funded by his PAC, and their own voters already picked Paxton.

Mano. Lacey. Your biggest backer moved. Will you?

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Sources

• Dick Weekley, "November 2026 Voting Recommendations," mass email sent 6:41 PM CT, Oct 12, 2026, with a request to forward (screenshots on file; recipient redacted).
• TLR, Dick Weekley bio: https://www.tortreform.com/team/dick-weekley/
• 2022 spending and "others can save him" quote: https://texasscorecard.com/state/analysis-does-tlr-want-a-democrat-attorney-general/ ; https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/23/texas-lawsuit-reform-dick-weekley-legislature/ ; https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/12/texas-trial-lawyers-gop-texans-for-lawsuit-reform-tort-civil-justice/
• TLR on the impeachment trial: https://texasscorecard.com/state/tlr-says-paxton-impeachment-charges-should-not-be-dismissed/ ; https://texasscorecard.com/state/report-paxton-to-question-tlrs-role-in-impeachment/ ; TLR denial: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/23/texas-legislature-2026-republican-primaries-house-tort-reform/
• House impeachment resolution: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/html/HR02377F.htm ; Houston votes: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/05/28/how-houston-area-representatives-voted-during-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxtons-impeachment-hearing/
• 2026 super PAC giving: https://datapickle.substack.com/p/every-dollar-in-the-2026-texas-senate
• 2020 $25,000 to Paxton: https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/contributor/richard-weekley/contributions?cycle=2020-election-cycle
• TLR PAC money: https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/candidate/lacey-hull/contributors?cycle=2015-to-now ; https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/candidate/mano-deayala/contributors?cycle=2015-to-now
• Cornyn legislator list: https://www.oaoa.com/local/31-current-republican-texas-legislators-endorse-sen-john-cornyn-for-re-election-to-the-u-s-senate/ ; https://capitolinside.com/cornyn-reps326x.html
• Impeachment managers back Paxton: https://www.keranews.org/news/2026-08-06/ken-paxton-former-friend-turned-political-critic-rep-jeff-leach-endorses-him-at-a-campaign-stop-senate-race ; https://texasscorecard.com/decisiontexas/old-divisions-fade-as-republicans-rally-around-paxton/
• Election results: theoelections.com (2021 House plan); Texas Legislative Council Red-206 reports, PLANH2316 (https://data.capitol.texas.gov/dataset/planh2316); 2026 statewide runoff: https://txelectionresults.com/2026-republican-primary-runoff/races/33715