Simmons's net worth was $10 billion, according to Forbes. Megadonor Harold Simmons dies

Republican megadonor Harold Simmons died Saturday in Dallas at age 82, according to Texas media reports.

Simmons and his wife, Annette, contributed almost $31 million to conservative causes during the 2012 election cycle, according to the Center for Public Integrity. The majority of it went to American Crossroads, a super PAC backed by former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove.


( PHOTOS: 2012 megadonors)

Simmons and his wife also contributed to super PACs supporting Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, according to CPI.

The Dallas Morning News first reported Simmons’s death.

The businessman’s net worth was $10 billion, according to Forbes, placing him at No. 40 on the magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans.

Simmons was part of a group of Republican megadonors who reemerged for the 2010 midterm elections after scaling back during the 2008 race, POLITICO reported. He and another Texan, Bob Perry, had helped finance the anti-John Kerry swift-boat attacks in 2004.

Perry died in April at age 80, prompting reflection on an aging generation of campaign-finance heavyweights.

“I would think there are people who are coming along who will replace the generation that’s giving now,” Republican Governors Association finance chairman Fred Malek told POLITICO earlier this year. “I don’t know who they are exactly.”

Simmons’s spending was not confined to Republican political candidates: His foundation gave $600,000 to Planned Parenthood and a Texas affiliate in 2011, according to CPI, and the same amount to a Dallas LGBT center this year, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is the front-runner against Democrat Wendy Davis in next year’s gubernatorial election, offered his condolences. Simmons had contributed $650,000 to Abbott’s campaign arm through September, according to data compiled by The Texas Tribune.

“The legacy of Harold Simmons will live on to benefit millions of Texans who never had the opportunity to meet the legendary Texan,” Abbott said in a statement.

Outgoing Texas Gov. Rick Perry also commemorated Simmons, referring to the billionaire’s philanthropic efforts.

“His legacy of hard work and giving, particularly to his beloved University of Texas, will live on for generations,” Perry said in a statement.

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Harold Simmons