By Chris Tobe | The CommonSense 401k Project | September 24, 2026

The Epstein files have entered Texas’s U.S. Senate race. James Talarico has stood with survivors and challenged Ken Paxton, the sitting attorney general and his Republican opponent, over the release of records. But voters should look beyond the Senate campaign. The governor’s race concerns the public money flowing into data centers and private capital. And the comptroller’s race features an extraordinary fact: the family of Don Huffines, Texas’s newly appointed comptroller and Republican nominee for a full term, owns Jeffrey Epstein’s former Zorro Ranch.

These are three different stories but are all tied to the Texas Republican establishment and the broader Epstein Class. They meet at the question of whether Texas officials will scrutinize powerful interests ie the Epstein Class as fiercely as they scrutinize ordinary taxpayers, teachers and school districts.  Will they even mention divestment from pensions prior to election even after Leon Blacks contempt of Congress https://commonsense401kproject.com/2026/09/08/the-market-has-put-a-price-on-apollos-conduct-with-jeffrey-epstein-public-pensions-should-finally-divest/

Senate: Survivors Want More Than a Campaign Prop

At September’s Epstein files exhibit in Dallas, Democrat Talarico challenged Paxton to meet with survivors and press for full disclosure. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa also appeared with survivors, according to reporting on the event. Paxton should explain what his office has done, what jurisdiction it believes it has, and what steps he would support in the Senate to release records while protecting survivors’ privacy. Talarico should publish his own concrete federal plan. The public deserves documents and action, not another election season of gestures.

Governor: Follow the Electricity, the Donors and the Pension Capital

As I documented in August, Greg Abbott promoted Texas’s data-center expansion before moving to police its effects on the grid. Hinojosa has challenged his donor relationships and the impact of data centers on household costs. Her campaign’s aggregate claim about data-center-linked contributions deserves an independently reproducible accounting; the underlying issue is real even without treating every dollar in that total as proved.

The financial circuit is worth investigating. Texas teachers’ pension money goes to private-market managers. Those managers can finance data centers, power plants and the infrastructure connecting them. The state can offer tax advantages and shape electricity policy. Major figures in energy, real estate and technology also contribute to campaigns. That sequence does not establish a quid pro quo, or show that a particular pension partnership financed a particular Texas data center. It tells voters exactly which records to demand.

Abbott welcomed Apollo Global Management’s Austin hub. Texas TRS has invested with Apollo, including a reported $400 million commitment to one Apollo fund. Apollo co-founder Leon Black paid Epstein more than $150 million for purported financial advice, including after Epstein’s conviction; Black is currently under Contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions.

Abbott also appointed Dan West of energy-focused private-equity firm SCF Partners to the TRS board. Private-investment experience can help a board. So can a trustee who insists on seeing every carried-interest charge, underlying holding and valuation assumption. Which view is missing?

Comptroller: The Ranch Owner Is Already in Office

The Texas Tribune reported that the Huffines family bought Zorro Ranch in 2023, four years after Epstein died. The campaign said it was purchased at a public auction whose proceeds benefited Epstein’s victims and that the family had never visited before it was listed. Abbott appointed Huffines comptroller after he won the Republican nomination; he took office August 1 and now faces Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt in November.

In March, New Mexico’s Department of Justice searched the ranch. Its statement is explicit: the investigation concerns alleged activity before Epstein died in 2019, and the department thanked the current owners for granting access. Ownership in 2023 does not establish a relationship with Epstein, knowledge of his crimes, or interference with investigators. An allegation in released files about possible burials is unverified; it cannot be presented as a discovery of remains or as evidence against the buyers.

Eckhardt has nevertheless made the purchase a campaign issue. Her campaign’s news page describes Huffines as the owner of Epstein’s former ranch, and she personally raised it with a reporter visiting the Dallas Epstein files exhibit. More pointedly, at a September campaign stop she criticized what she said were the removal of experienced comptroller staff who could investigate corporate tax avoidance and questionable contracts. She also used a metaphor about “burying the truth” at the ranch. Read her reported remarks here.

There is a separate, documentable story about how Huffines has begun to govern. The Texas Tribune found that numerous veteran staff members left or were pushed out. Huffines made Noah Betz—whose consulting firm received nearly $2.7 million from Huffines’s political operation since 2022, according to campaign filings—his top deputy at a salary of $306,000. Betz had graduated in 2023 and appeared to have no prior government or public-finance job. Huffines’s office defended its staffing decisions and said the team was improving the agency.

Before November, Take a Stance on Divestment – Open the Books

• Paxton and Talarico: Take a stance on divestment from Epstein linked Apollo for taxpayer funded pensions.State the specific federal records each would seek, which disclosures should protect survivors, and what authority a Texas attorney general has in the underlying investigations.
• Abbott and Hinojosa: Take a stance on divestment from Epstein linked Apollo for taxpayer funded pensions. Publish data-center subsidies, beneficial ownership, grid-cost allocation and major donors’ overlapping business interests. Have TRS report Apollo exposures and net returns after all fees, plus material look-through exposure to Texas data centers and power projects.
• Huffines and Eckhardt: Take a stance on divestment from Epstein linked Apollo for taxpayer funded pensions. Publish a dated account of senior comptroller departures, replacement qualifications, potential conflicts, corporate-tax enforcement and reviews of incentives. Huffines should describe the terms of access granted to New Mexico investigators; New Mexico has already publicly thanked the current owners for their cooperation.

Survivors deserve investigation and truth. Teachers deserve a pension system that shows them what it owns and what it pays. Households deserve to know who benefits when the grid bends toward data centers. Texas voters should demand all three before choosing their senator, governor and comptroller.