Owner of Buc-ee’s Targeted By Texas Newspaper Over Political Donations
As I've previously written, I'm a fan of Buc-ee's. Even though they ignore West Texas and have expanded into other states before even giving Lubbock or Amarillo a chance, I'm still a fan of the clean restrooms, the huge amount of fuel pumps, Beaver Nuggets and the ability to purchase everything from a Dr Pepper to a grill, to a BBQ sandwich, fudge or even art.
Most of the time, Buc-ee's gets pretty good press. That's why it surprised me when I saw a piece on Twitter written by someone at the Houston Chronicle about a boycott of Buc-ee's. I wondered what this could be about. Did the image of the Beaver scare someone? Was it possible they ran out of kolaches?
No. Instead, the Houston Chronicle decided to publish a story about the owner of Buc-ee's, Arch Aplin III. According to the Houston Chronicle, someone on Facebook decided to look into Aplin's political donations, and what they found shocked tens of people online.
Aplin has donated money to Texas Republicans, including over $1 million to Texas Governor Greg Abbott:
According to the database, Aplin has given to 20 Republican PACs, including Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan, and former speaker Dennis Bonnen. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Aplin has given the most to Abbott: $1,025,000 to be exact. Donations to other PACs range from $1,000 to $375,000.
Since July 14, Aplin has donated $490,000. More than half of those donations have gone toward Abbott’s PAC.
The writer of the piece then goes on to say that some "concerned Texans" are calling for a boycott of Buc-ee's because of the political donations. Only three tweets were cited by the Chronicle regarding this boycott, so I don't think Buc-ee's has much to worry about.
The bigger story here is that a major newspaper in the state of Texas decided to target a well-known business and the owner of said business because of his political contributions and publish a piece based off a few people who are angry on social media. There is no major boycott of Buc-ee's planned, nor should there be.
I wonder if the author of the piece will be reporting on Texas business owners who give to Democrats?