GOP comptroller candidate Don Huffines purchased ranch linked to Epstein
Controversy has long followed the former state senator, but his family’s acquisition of property connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is drawing renewed outrage across Texas.
Don Huffines is a business owner and former state senator who has long been a controversial figure, even among Texas Republicans. Elected to represent District 16, Huffines served just one term. He lost re-election in 2018 after proving himself to be too toxic even for conservative suburban voters in Dallas.
Huffines mounted a desperate attempt at a political comeback in 2022, when he primaried Governor Greg Abbott, painting himself as the real conservative in the race, as if the far-right Governor wasn’t extremist enough. Despite the millions of dollars Huffines spent on this race, he ended in an embarrassing third place, with a measly 12% of the vote. Now, Huffines is running yet another ego-driven vanity campaign, this time for state comptroller, which just became a much more complicated endeavor after this latest revelation.
According to a report that was first published by the Santa Fe New Mexican, a Limited Liability Company setup by Don Huffines and his family purchased convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in southern Santa Fe County. The Huffines campaign first tried to ignore the story, before eventually releasing a statement about the controversy.
“Four years after Mr. Epstein’s death, the Huffines family purchased property in New Mexico listed at public auction whose proceeds benefited his victims. Prior to the auction listing, they had never visited the property,” said Allen Blakemore, Huffines’ campaign spokesperson.
While the statement tries to paint the purchase in a positive light, neither Huffines nor anybody involved with his campaign answered direct questions from reporters about the reason for this purchase. It’s not every day that business owners and real estate developers purchase property linked to one of the most notorious pedophiles in U.S. history, so it’s natural for many reporters and voters to be asking these questions.
Despite the many lingering questions and concerns about this purchase, one this is quite clear: this controversy can be added to the ever-growing list of Republican politicians and financiers who are linked, in one way or another, to Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network.