Updated at 2:45 p.m. Feb. 22 with statements from Texas Sen. Bob Hall and opponent Cindy Burkett's adviser.

A civil war is raging among Texas Republicans. Nowhere are the big-money moves and political schisms more apparent than in a little-publicized state Senate race on the east side of Dallas.

From East Dallas’ blue precincts to moderate Republican turf in Garland and Mesquite, to ruby-red Rowlett and a huge swath of heavily GOP-leaning territory in East Texas, the sprawling Senate District 2 offers a glimpse at how a few West Texas billionaires are trying to tip the Legislature in a very different and much more hard-right direction.

Tea party-aligned state Sen. Bob Hall, a first-term Republican from Edgewood, is trying to fend off a challenge from pro-business conservative Sunnyvale GOP state Rep. Cindy Burkett.

The Wilks brothers of Cisco, southeast of Abilene, and political action committees they dominate have given nearly $540,000 to Hall’s re-election campaign — 55 percent of its total fundraising haul.

Farris and Dan Wilks, fixtures in the Assembly of Yahweh 7th Day Church their father helped found, whose adherents follow Jesus but also dietary laws described in the Old Testament, became billionaires in a mid-2000s "fracking" boom in oil and gas drilling.

Farris, his wife, JoAnn, and Dan and his wife, Staci, have invested millions in staunchly conservative political causes and news media sites. In state races, the two couples have zoomed to the top of the list of GOP mega donors.

Through Jan. 25, the Wilkses and their main PACs — Empower Texans, Texas Right to Life and Texas Home School Coalition — had plowed nearly $2.7 million into state races, mostly GOP legislative campaigns, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of campaign-finance reports to the Texas Ethics Commission.

One-fifth of those dollars have flowed to Hall in his race with Burkett. The contest pits Hall, who opposes toll roads and state debt, against Burkett, a lieutenant of retiring Speaker Joe Straus, who has warned the party’s hard-right elements are anti-business.

Asked to discuss their political giving, the Wilkses did not respond to The Dallas Morning News.

They and advisers who manage PACs and candidates they support have devoted big sums to defending two tea party incumbents — Hall and Rep. Mike Lang of Granbury, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.

This cycle, Hall and Lang are the top targets of the state GOP’s old guard and business groups — both increasingly alarmed by transgender bathroom legislation and anti-immigration measures promoted by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Jones said.

In Hall’s race against Burkett and several House battles, the Wilks brothers and a few other ideologically driven conservative donors have stripped away the shield that business-oriented Republicans have traditionally enjoyed, he said.

“They’ve allowed the movement conservatives to effectively compete on a near equal playing field with their establishment rivals,” Jones said of the Wilkses, Midland oilman Tim Dunn and a few of Dunn’s friends.

“They’ve eliminated the principal advantage that establishment candidates always had, which is money.”

Hall said the large amount of donations from the Wilks, Empower Texans and Right To Life is an endorsement of his core beliefs.

"To me it says they like the values I have," he said. "They like the fact I go to Austin and do what I say. They like the fact that I'm 100 percent pro-life. They like the fact that I'm fiscally responsible. They like the fact that I stand up for family values."

Craig Murphy, an adviser to Burkett, though, said Hall's like a puppet on Empower Texans' string.

"In four years, 196 times in a row, he did exactly what they told him ahead of the time was their preferred position," Murphy said, referring to Empower Texans' daily lists advising lawmakers of the group's position on bills.

"That's amazing," he said. "Most people don't agree with their own husband or wife 100 percent of the time. But he managed to agree with the guy who gave him a half-million dollars 100 percent of the time."

Top donors to Texas Right to Life PAC, current cycle

Touch graphic to see more information:

Rising on the right

For much of the past decade, party purification efforts by staunch conservatives were funded mostly by Midland’s Dunn. He financed challengers to Straus, his GOP allies in the House and centrist-conservative Republicans in the Senate.

Dunn operated through Empower Texans and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, both run by his Austin-based strategist, former journalist Michael Quinn Sullivan.

In recent cycles, Empower Texans has joined forces with social conservative groups such as Texas Right to Life, the Texas Home School Coalition and Texas Eagle Forum to try to defeat “RINOs” — deemed Republicans in name only. Dunn, Sullivan and now the Wilkses determined that Straus was too moderate, too conciliatory to outnumbered House Democrats.

In the 2014 election cycle, Dunn provided $3.4 million to the Empower Texans PAC, or 80 percent of its receipts. In the current cycle, Dunn has given the PAC $1.2 million.

However, the Wilkses have now eclipsed him, giving $1.35 million.

Top donors to Empower Texans PAC, current cycle

Touch graphic to see more information:

The brothers’ background

Until a few years ago, the brothers were unknown outside of the petroleum industry and a small religious group in West Texas.

Their mother, Myrtle, was the daughter of Charlie Fenter. In the late 1940s,

led a group that broke away from a Church of Christ and formed a new congregation in De Leon, southwest of Stephenville. It later was influenced by a Bethel, Pa., religious group that developed out of the radio ministry of Jacob O. Meyer.

Following in the footsteps of his late father, Voy Wilks, Farris Wilks is pastor of Assembly of Yahweh 7th Day Church in Rising Star. Adherents observe a Friday night-to-Saturday-dusk sabbath, consider being gay a "grievous sin," condemn abortion as "murder" and view the Bible as correct in every historical and scientific detail, according to a 2015 story by Reuters news service.

Farris and Dan Wilks grew up working in their father’s masonry business. They struck it rich in the hydraulic fracturing revolution in North American oil fields in the 2000s. They sold the majority stake in their business, Frac Tech, in 2011. The brothers are worth an estimated $1.5 billion each.

Today, they own Forward Publishing, which includes the conservative website The Daily Wire. They also continue to have interests in Canadian shale plays; are among the largest private landowners in Montana and Idaho; and are major benefactors of Dennis Prager University, which helps produce videos for staunch conservatives and their causes.

In 2014, the Wilks brothers and their PACs gave nearly $800,000 to then-Texas Sen. Ken Paxton of McKinney in his successful bid for state attorney general. In that cycle, they and their favored PACs such as Empower Texans also gave about $1.4 million to staunchly conservative legislative candidates that year, The Dallas Morning News found.

Dan and Farris Wilks then exploded onto the national political scene in 2015 when they gave $15 million to a super PAC supporting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid.

Farris Wilks watches Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speak in the community center named after his mother in Cisco, Texas. The "Reigniting the Promise Community Rally" was sponsored by the Keep the Promise Super PAC and held at the Myrtle Wilks Community Center in Cisco. (Ronald W. Erdich / Abilene Reporter-News)

They also ramped up their giving to state lawmakers. In the 2016 cycle, the Wilkses and their state PACs gave nearly $2.9 million to legislative candidates — slightly more than they've given for 2018, though it's still early in the current cycle.

They continue to have fracking interests. Last year, the Wilkses owned 12 percent of a Canadian company, Calfrach Well Services Inc., Bloomberg News reported. Some critics have noted that they donated to more than 20 GOP lawmakers who voted to overturn Denton's anti-fracking ordinance in 2015.

But Jones, the Rice professor, puts the Wilks brothers in a separate category from past major donors in state races, such as the late Houston trial lawyer Steve Mostyn, who backed Democrats, and the late Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, who supported Republicans. Perry won from the Legislature protections against lawsuits over defective construction and even a new if short-lived state agency to handle homeowner complaints.

The Wilkses, by contrast, “are very ideological donors,” Jones said.

“They’re giving to try to elect candidates who share their vision of the world rather than candidates who will promote legislation that will benefit them economically,” he said.

From friend to ‘villain’

In 2016, Farris and Dan Wilks’ top priority was defeating Eastland Republican Jim Keffer, a key Straus ally who was their state representative.

The Wilkses and their causes showered $336,500 on Lang. He announced against Keffer early in 2015.

That year, Lang’s wife, Katie, the Hood County clerk, attracted national headlines when she cited her religious beliefs in denying a marriage license to a gay couple after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions. Hood County eventually paid a $43,800 settlement to a couple who was denied.

Eventually, Keffer bowed out. Lang won the seat over a more moderate Republican by 8 percentage points.

Keffer, who said he’d been on friendly terms with the Wilks brothers, said he was surprised to learn in 2015 they were making big contributions to Lang.

“They were supporters of mine. I helped get Cisco an airport,” he said, referring to their hometown. “Then they got in the other camp. They started believing Right to Life and Michael Quinn [Sullivan]. I became the villain.”

In the current cycle, Lang faces Granbury school superintendent Jim Largent in the GOP primary. Their contest is viewed as a key test of whether the House will drop its opposition to Patrick's private-school tuition vouchers.

Through Jan. 25, the Wilkses and their favorite PACs had given Lang more than $173,000, The Dallas Morning News found.

Other Wilks-backed House candidates include Fort Worth businessman Richard "Bo" French, whom they've given nearly $213,000 for his rematch against Straus sidekick and House Administration Committee Chairman Charlie Geren; and Thomas McNutt of Corsicana, whose family runs the Collin Street Bakery, famous for its fruitcakes. He helped force into retirement Straus ally and House State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook, who isn't seeking a ninth term.

‘Official looking’ mailer

This week, Geren said the Wilkses' money — 57 percent of French's total funding, The Dallas Morning News found — has forced him to respond to waves of attack-mail pieces by Empower Texans.

“I spend as much time raising money as I do going to events and politicking,” Geren said.

He questioned the propriety of one mailing, from an Empower Texans-created entity called Texas Ethics Disclosure Board. It lists lobbying clients of Geren’s wife, Mindy Ellmer.

“It’s very official looking,” said Geren, who said he’d countered by buying up as many internet domain names for the group as he could.

Sullivan, of Empower Texans, did not respond to requests for comment.

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, a Republican, said the Wilks brothers and Empower Texans, dominated by West Texas donors, “are in fact trying to buy the Legislature.”

“People need to wake up and realize when their representatives have most of their campaign contributions coming from outside their particular districts that ought to be a signal that maybe they’re not going to represent us,” Whitley said.

Southlake GOP Rep. Giovanni Capriglione is being challenged by Keller City Councilman Armin Mizani, who's backed by the Wilkses and Empower Texans, he noted.

“Gio has been very strong pro-life and yet all of a sudden, these organizations that the Wilkses have been contributing heavily to are going against him,” Whitley said. “They’re in fact scaring people off from running.”

Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, answers questions as Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, listens during an interview at The Dallas Morning News on Friday, Feb. 9. Burkett is challenging Hall for his state Senate seat. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Top race for Wilks brothers

In the Wilkses’ top race, the Senate seat battle east of Dallas, Hall, a military veteran, is a freshman close to Patrick, the lieutenant governor. The Empower Texans PAC, of which the Wilkses are now the biggest financial angels, donated $200,000 to Hall last month. For eight years, the PAC’s main goal has been dethroning Straus as speaker. In October, Straus, a San Antonio Republican, announced he’s retiring.

Burkett, who is giving up her House seat to challenge Hall, is an ally whom Straus tapped to handle some of the bills passed to overhaul Child Protective Services and foster care.

Last year, Straus and his lieutenants blocked House passage of a bathroom bill and other top Patrick priorities, such as tighter caps on local property tax revenue and on state and local spending.

Defending Freedom Caucus members

With some support from Abbott, the major conservative donors have circled the wagons around House members such as Lang who belong to the Texas Freedom Caucus. The 12 House incumbents who formed the caucus last session are in sync with Dunn, Sullivan and the Wilkses. Like them, Lang & Co. want to make their chamber more like Patrick's Senate.

The Wilkses and their PACs also are providing, at least so far, more than two-thirds of the contributions for four Republican challengers to GOP incumbents and for Dallas County Republican House hopeful Deanna Metzger.

In a district that includes parts of North and East Dallas, Metzger is seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Victoria Neave this fall. Through Jan. 25, Metzger was beholden to the Wilkses and Wilks-funded PACs for 80 percent of her total funding.

Keffer, the

’ former state representative, said the donations amount to “overkill” and could come back to haunt the recipients by creating an unfavorable perception.

“I would think they want their guys to go out and raise money so everybody knows they have

in the district, instead of getting nine-tenths of their money from one source,” he said. “It just makes all of these guys lazy.”

The primary is March 6. Early voting began Tuesday. It continues through March 2.