A Texas district court judge granted a Temporary Restraining Order against Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke to stop what Attorney General Ken Paxton described as a “misleading financial-influence scheme to fund runaway Democrats who fled Texas to break quorum. ” The order stops O’Rourke and his political group, Powered By People, from fundraising and expending funds to support Democrat House Representatives who fled the state to prevent the passage of congressional redistricting in the special session called by Governor Greg Abbott.

“The Court finds that harm is imminent to the State, and if the Court does not issue the Temporary Restraining Order, the State will be irreparably injured,” 348th Judicial District Court Judge Megan Fahey wrote in the court order. “Specifically, Defendants’ fundraising conduct constitutes false, misleading, or deceptive acts under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §§ 17.46(a), (b)(2), (b)(5), (b)(7), and (b)(24) because Defendants are raising and utilizing political contributions from Texas consumers to pay for the personal expenses of Texas legislators, in violation of Texas law.”

Attorney General Paxton claimed victory following the issuance of the restraining order mere hours after filing. “The Beto Bribe buyouts that were bankrolling the runaway Democrats have been officially stopped,” Paxton said in a written statement Friday evening. “People like Robert (O’Rourke) believe Texas can be bought. Today, I stopped his deceptive financial influence scheme that attempted to deceive donors and subvert our constitutional process. They told me to ‘come and take it,’ so I did.”