Middleton Oil Mayes

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HEATED GMAIL 11 26

An activist dressed as a fossil fuel executive pours fake gas over fake money outside Shell’s headquarters in May 2026. During the 2026 midterm elections, the U.S. fossil fuel industry lit actual money on fire trying to elect Republicans. Photo by James Willoughby/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

The U.S. oil and gas industry spent at least $182 million trying to elect Republicans in last night’s midterm elections¹.

It didn’t buy them very much.

Voters rejected fossil fuel allies and priorities across the country, not only stripping Republicans of control of both the House and Senate, but delivering stunning defeats in fossil-fueled governors’ races, state legislatures, regulatory commissions, and ballot measures.

Here are some notable examples.

Republicans lost control of the House and Senate despite large oil industry donations. Chevron gave $8.2 million, Koch Inc. gave $6.8 million, and Energy Transfer gave $2 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and Congressional Leadership Fund, according to a Public Citizen analysis. The American Petroleum Institute gave at least another $8 million to the two super PACs, which work to elect Republican majorities in Congress. Republicans still lost both chambers.
A Texas oil billionaire’s attempt to buy Michigan’s Senate race failed. Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn gave $5 million to a super PAC backing Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race. It didn’t matter. Voters still elected Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, whose platform includes shutting down the Line 5 pipeline and transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy.
In fact, pretty much everything Tim Dunn tried to do failed. The ultra-Christian oil billionaire gave more than $11 million to Texas Republican PACs, with almost all of it going to Texans United for a Conservative Majority. And what happened in Texas was the polar opposite of a conservative majority. Speaking of which:
Chevron and fracking money couldn’t make Texans like Ken Paxton. Lone Star Liberty PAC, the group backing Republican Ken Paxton’s bid for U.S. Senate, received at least $2 million from oil and gas interests, including $200,000 from the Chevron Employees PAC and $250,000 from oil executive Russell Gordy. Fracking billionaire Farris Wilks gave another $250,000 to Paxton Victory. Voters still elected James Talarico, who campaigned on restoring federal support for renewable energy and strengthening clean air and water protections.
Chevron couldn’t save Susan Collins, either. The oil company gave $200,000 to Pine Tree Results PAC, the super PAC backing Maine’s Republican senator. Voters still elected Democrat Troy Jackson, ending Collins’s nearly three decades in the Senate.

HEATED

Two oil executives poured ~$6 million down the drain trying to save Greg Abbott. Midland Energy founder Javaid Anwar contributed about $4.37 million to the Texas Republican governor’s re-election campaign, and Energy Transfer’s Kelcy Warren also gave at least $1.5 million. Texans still elected Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who campaigned on making the energy industry pay its fair share and accused Abbott of letting gas companies profit at Texans’ expense during the deadly 2021 blackouts.
Fossil fuel money couldn’t even save Texas’s fossil fuel regulator. In perhaps the most stunning blue flip in Texas, Democrat Jon Rosenthal won the race to oversee the Texas Railroad Commission, the agency that oversees the state’s massive oil and gas industry—and his did it despite his Republican opponent receiving $1.8 million from oil-linked donors. While Rosenthal hardly portrays himself as a climate champion, he’s campaigned on ending routine flaring and venting, requiring modern leak detection, and enforcing pollution rules.
An oil heir wasted $18 million trying to buy the Texas attorney general’s office. Republican Mayes Middleton, president of his family’s Middleton Oil Company, contributed $18 million to his own campaign, but ultimately wound up losing to Nathan Johnson, who will become the first elected Democrat attorney general in Texas since 1994. This could have major implications for climate accountability, as state attorneys general have the power to investigate corporate deception and sue fossil fuel companies for misleading the public about climate change. (Middleton also received $100,000 donations from Energy Transfer vice chairman Kelcy Warren and Double Eagle co-founder Cody Campbell, to no avail.)
Utility and coal money couldn’t keep Georgia’s energy regulators in Republican hands. For the first time in decades, Democrats gained control of Georgia Public Service Commission, which helps decide how much people pay for electricity and which power plants Georgia Power builds. They did this despite fossil fuel money flowing into the race: Republican candidate Fitz Johnson received nearly $200,000 from donors connected to companies the commission regulates, while Republican candidate Josh Tolbert received $63,200 from trusts linked to Alabama’s coal-rich Drummond family.
Colorado voters will likely reject a Constitutional amendment establishing the right to buy methane gas. Amendment 82’s financial backers were largely unknown, but the ballot measure’s express purpose was to undermine state and local efforts to move buildings to electric appliances—so I’m just assuming it was a fossil fuel-backed measure. Nevertheless, it looks destined for defeat: With counting continuing, Amendment 82 had only about 46 percent support, well short of the 55 percent needed to pass.
Bonus: Elon Musk flushed $445 million down the toilet. “But Elon Musk isn’t a fossil fuel billionaire,” you say. And sure, perhaps that’s technically true—but it’s getting less true by the day. Earlier this year, his company SpaceX acquired a literal fossil fuel company called APR Energy, in a deal valued at roughly $1 billion. APR operates mobile gas and diesel turbines to power AI data centers. Speaking of which, by June, Musk’s AI company xAI had installed at least 57 methane gas turbines at its Mississippi power plant, according to the NAACP and environmental groups—with enough generating capacity to power an estimated 738,000 to 950,000 homes. If that’s not a man in the fossil fuel business, please tell me what is.

Now, none of this is to say that oil money was entirely defeated in the 2026 midterms. Many fossil fuel-backed Republicans, including Texas Senator August Pfluger and U.S House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, handily won reelection.

Nor is it to say that the oil industry’s priorities will suddenly disappear from U.S. politics. Donald Trump is still the president, and *many* elected Democrats are out and proud champions of methane gas, one of the most climate-polluting fuels on the planet. (Perhaps now this is a good time to remind everyone that James Talarico championed ExxonMobil on the campaign trail).

But last night demonstrated something worth remembering, particularly for people who care about climate change but often doubt whether meaningful progress is possible, and as we head into two more difficult years of trying to achieve some kind of climate action under Donald Trump.

Fossil fuel money is one of the most powerful forces in American politics. It is the biggest obstacle we face in preserving a livable climate for everyone on Earth.

But it is not invincible.

Not even close.

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