Comptroller Don Huffines Did Not Disclose His Role With a Firm That Invests in SpaceX. His Campaign Says He Has No Stake

Texas Comptroller Don Huffines, who is on the ballot Tuesday, left his leadership role with a family investment firm that lists SpaceX in its portfolio off the personal financial disclosure he filed with the state in February, The Texas Tribune reported Wednesday.

His campaign says he has no ownership stake in the firm or in SpaceX and has received no income from either. An ethics lawyer told the Tribune that under state law, that does not matter.

The comptroller's office administers two tax breaks for SpaceX and an affiliate worth more than a billion dollars. Both were awarded before Huffines took office.

The firm

Huffines Enterprises Science & Technology, or HEST, is a Dallas-based private equity firm launched in 2022, the Tribune reported. It is connected to Huffines Communities and Huffines Enterprises, the real estate businesses Huffines founded with his twin brother, Phillip.

According to comptroller's office records cited by the Tribune, a state filing for the firm signed in September, after Huffines took office, lists him as its manager. His son Colin Huffines is also listed as a manager. A website archive shows that, as of early February, a page on the firm's website listed Huffines as president and another son, Russell Huffines, as vice president. That page has been down since at least March, a few weeks after Huffines filed his disclosure.

The firm's website lists SpaceX as one of nine companies in its portfolio. The private market tracker Pitchbook also notes the investment, though the amount is not public.

State law requires candidates and officeholders to disclose executive roles they hold in businesses, and it does not require that they be paid for them. A 2023 bill that would have limited the requirement to paid positions failed, the Tribune reported.

What the campaign says

Allen Blakemore, a spokesperson and senior adviser to the Huffines campaign, said Huffines "holds no personal ownership interest in HEST or SpaceX, and has received no income from either entity."

"Since taking office, Comptroller Huffines has not approved, directed, or influenced a single incentive, grant, or agreement for any entity with which he has any financial involvement," Blakemore said. "Full stop." He stressed that all of SpaceX's incentives were approved before Huffines was sworn in.

A campaign spokesperson did not respond to the Tribune's questions about whether Huffines is still president of the firm or why the web page is no longer live. SpaceX did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

What a critic says

Andy Cates, a political lawyer and ethics expert, told the Tribune that the timing of the SpaceX deals is "irrelevant" to the duty to disclose. "Being manager of a family firm is still a holding that requires disclosure, no matter if the impact predates your tenure or not," he said.

The forms exist so citizens can see officials' business interests and judge for themselves whether there are conflicts, Cates said. "It only serves to continue eroding trust in elected officials if they fail to disclose all of the necessary information that a person would need," he said. "If they leave it off, the [public's] presumption at this point is not that it was a mistake. The presumption is that it was intentional, and they're trying to hide something."

The SpaceX tax breaks

Under former acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, the office approved eight tax incentive agreements with TeraFab AI, a company linked to SpaceX. Elon Musk has said the planned 100-million-square-foot facility will be the largest semiconductor plant in the world. If all four phases are built, TeraFab will be exempt from nearly $1.7 billion in local school maintenance and operations taxes through 2046, the Tribune reported.

SpaceX has also been approved by the governor's office for up to $11.25 million in tax breaks for three projects under the state's Enterprise Zone Program. The first two were approved in late 2025 and the third in June, a month before Huffines was sworn in.

After a tax break is approved, the comptroller's office still monitors compliance and can impose penalties or revoke agreements if companies fall short, according to the state laws governing the programs.

The race and the rules

Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Huffines in July after Hancock stepped down. Huffines won the March Republican primary and faces Democrat Sarah Eckhardt on Nov. 3. The comptroller is the state's chief financial officer, responsible for collecting taxes, overseeing state contracts and estimating state revenue.

Cates said there are seldom consequences for leaving something off a disclosure form. State law makes it a crime to knowingly fail to file one, but not to leave something off, and there is no automatic penalty for omissions. Any Texas resident can file a sworn complaint, which the state's ethics agency then investigates.

Voters can weigh the campaign's answer against the critic's. Either way, the man who keeps the state's books should keep his own disclosures complete. Scripture puts it plainly: "Provide things honest in the sight of all men" (Romans 12:17).

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