LUFKIN — In what appears to be one of the largest donations in a Texas legislative primary race this election cycle, a first-time candidate running for state Senate received nearly $2 million from a conservative East Texas businessman with a background in technology hardware.
James Moyer, a Sabine County resident, has almost single-handedly funded Rhonda Ward’s campaign for the state Senate seat that represents East Texas cities such as Nacogdoches, Orange, and Palestine.
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The seat was long held by Sen. Robert Nichols, a Jacksonville Republican who announced his retirement last June. State Rep. Trent Ashby, a Lufkin Republican who worked closely with Nichols in Austin and who is Nichols’ preferred successor, announced his intentions to run for the seat on the same day.
Moyer’s donations through the end of 2025 transformed Ward, a novice politician with middling financial support, into a candidate with enough buying power to compete against a seasoned lawmaker.
The size of Moyer’s donation is extraordinary, especially for a state Senate candidate.
Gov. Greg Abbott, the most successful fundraiser in state history, is known for raking in multimillion-dollar donations from wealthy individuals during a single election cycle. This cycle, he has received more than $2.2 million for S. Javaid Anwar, an oil tycoon. Previously, he received $6 million from private school voucher supporter Jeff Yass.
Down ballot, million-dollar donations are less common. For example, Tim Dunn, a far-right conservative West Texas billionaire, gave Shelley Luther, a state House Republican from Tom Bean, more than $1 million in 2020 during her failed state Senate campaign, finance records show.
Texas has no limits on campaign donations to candidates running for state offices.
Moyer’s donation accounts for more than 90% of Ward’s total campaign contributions and has raised questions about what influence Moyer might wield if Ward is elected.
Ward, in an interview with The Texas Tribune, said Moyer’s donation is conditionless.
“I think people are really trying to attach strings to it, and there are no strings attached,” Ward said. “He has not asked me one thing about any type of vote on anything.”
Ward previously served on the State Republican Executive Committee, which helps set the Republican Party of Texas’s policy agenda. She met Moyer at a Republican Party event, she said. Ward is a Nacogdoches real estate expert and rancher.
Moyer was born and raised in Southeast Texas and now lives in Hemphill, the Sabine County seat. During the last decade, he has been lauded for his work to establish the Fairmont community in Sabine County and his support of economic development in the region.
“I support Rhonda Ward because I want to see a conservative Senator in this seat before I die,” Moyer said in a statement provided by the Ward campaign.
Moyer did not respond to multiple attempts to contact him.
The former businessman has donated to various political action committees and candidates over the years, including Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Nichols, although not to this level. For comparison, Moyer gave Abbott $162,000 over the course of four years and Nichols $10,000 in 2017.
Nichols told the Tribune that when he and Moyer met prior to the donation, they discussed the possibility of Texas seceding from the union. Nichols joked that the last time Texas seceded, the Union came down and “kicked our rear end.” Moyer did not find this funny, Nichols said. He seemed very serious and interested in the possibility of secession.
Ward has signed the Take Texas Back pledge, which is backed by the Texas Nationalist Movement, and requires candidates to promise myriad things, including: placing Texas before anything else, the nation included; upholding the right of Texans to alter, reform or abolish the government; voting for legislation and resolutions that call for a vote on Texas secession; and working toward a fair separation of Texas from the union if it’s what voters want.
Ward, in an interview, said she is a faithful U.S. citizen and proud MAGA Republican. And she believes Texans ought to have the right to vote on secession, and she wouldn’t stand in their way.
Ashby, Ward’s opponent, has not signed the Take Texas Back pledge. He has made this campaign largely about property taxes, water and safety.
Ward has prioritized property taxes and safety in her campaign, but her connection to Moyer has become a central concern to some residents.
Moyer was a co-founder of Monolithic Power Systems, a technology company with headquarters in Florida, in 1997. He retired from the board of directors in 2024, according to SEC documents.
Monolithic provides equipment and support for data centers, according to its own website. There are no reports of the company building any data centers in East Texas.
The Messenger-News, an independent news outlet from Crockett, first reported Moyer’s donation in early February. The article drew the connection between the company and data centers, artificial intelligence and China. Monolithic has operations across the Asian continent, including China, and creates products that support the expansion of AI and data centers.
Residents who are fighting a proposed data center in Lufkin began sharing the article online as a warning. The region has become increasingly wary of businesses that aim to use the region’s water.
Ward said the connections between Moyer and data centers were inaccurate and misinformation spread by Ashby’s campaign.
Ward said she and Moyer never discussed how she would vote on any topic or his former company. They did discuss how she would beat Ashby in March, however.
Moyer’s donations started with $10,000 in June of 2025, then $100,000 about two weeks later. In July he sent $600,000 over two installments. By the end of 2025, he’d donated $1.96 million.
As of Jan. 22, when the last round of fundraising reports were published, Ward raised a total of $2.14 million. The additional donations — about $187,000 — have come mostly from individuals.
Meanwhile, Ashby has raised $2.56 million, with more institutional support and in-kind donations, such as advertising, rather than large checks like Ward received. His largest contribution this cycle was from the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC, which donated $358,000 over a few months.
Nichols also donated $151,657 to Ashby directly.
Ashby said he has never spoken with Moyer, and he has been critical of the donation in interviews. He said voters are right to question a candidate’s intention when a significant portion of their funding comes from one person.
“This Senate seat should reflect the will of the voters, not the influence of one wealthy donor,” Ashby wrote in an email.
The Ward campaign pointed out that it was Ashby, not Ward, who had received donations from individuals with a known interest in building data centers in the region.
Ashby has received contributions from people tied to a data center project in East Texas. He received $36,000 from Lufkin Mayor Mark Hicks, a local businessman who is working out a deal to allow a data center to take over an unused former paper mill just outside of city limits. Hicks has been a longtime Ashby supporter.
The lawmaker said he has no involvement with the project; it is a local issue to be decided by city and county officials.