AUSTIN – Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott decided to go all in on a crusade to change the U.S. Constitution. Texas, he said, must lead the charge in wresting power from a federal government run amok.

In January 2016, he issued a 70-page plan for a convention of states to amend the Constitution. In May, he published an autobiography dedicated primarily to his belief that the states should change the 229-year-old document. And in January, as lawmakers embarked on the 85th legislative session, he declared the convention of states an emergency issue, putting a resolution calling for one on the fast track to passage.

Critics say the notion, long considered a fringe idea, could endanger freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution. Abbott’s enthusiasm has left political observers wondering if perhaps he’s looking to increase his national stature or establish a legacy.

“The governor is trying to carve off a kind of conservative policy he can call his own,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor.

Those suppositions may hold water. But experts say for the first time in decades, the convention of states movement may stand a remote chance of becoming reality thanks, in part, to the support of mega-rich conservative donors who have given millions to Abbott and other Texas Republicans.

“It’s a realistic possibility. It’s terrifying, but it is a realistic possibility,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a nonpartisan government accountability group that opposes the convention of states movement.

Under the package of bills the Senate approved Tuesday, Texas would join eight states that have formally submitted an application to Congress seeking a convention of states to impose limits on federal spending, enact term limits for federal lawmakers and limit the power of the federal government. If 34 states submit applications, Congress would be forced to call a convention — one of two ways the U.S. Constitution can be amended. The other is that Congress can propose amendments approved by two-thirds of the members of both chambers.

Abbott first announced his new political mission during a speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based conservative think tank where Midland oilman Tim Dunn serves as vice chairman of the board.

"We have to take the lead to restore the rule of law in America," Abbott said.

Texas Attorney Greg Abbott signs his new book, "Broken But Unbowed," during the 2016 Texas Republican Convention in May 2016 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. (2016 File Photo / David Woo)

Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States Project, said he learned of the governor’s fervor for the convention during that speech and offered his organization's help. The Convention of States Project is a nonprofit that launched in 2013 to gin up support nationwide for a convention that would limit federal powers.

The project is the primary focus of Citizens for Self-Governance, another nonprofit that includes Dunn on its board of directors.

Dunn — both individually and through Empower Texans, a political action committee that is primarily funded by him — has contributed more than $5 million to far-right Texas Republicans since 2010, according to campaign finance records. Dunn donated $30,000 to Abbott. Empower Texans gave more than $25,000 to Sen. Brian Birdwell, who is championing the convention legislation in the upper chamber. And Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has gotten nearly $650,000 from Dunn and Empower Texans.

The influence of Dunn and Empower Texans has been most palpable in the Texas House. Last year, Empower Texans plowed more than $1.4 million into campaigns for ultraconservative House candidates.

Contributions to lawmakers from Tim Dunn and Empower Texans, 2010-2016:

Gov. Greg Abbott - $30,000

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick - $649,546

Sen. Brian Birdwell - $25,234

Total Dunn contributions - $946,898

Total Empower Texans contributions- $3,965,725

In addition to the generous campaign contributions, Empower Texans issues a report card that grades lawmakers based on how they vote on conservative hot-button issues. This year, Empower Texans will grade them on how they vote on the convention of the states, along with 14 other key issues.

Neither Dunn nor Empower Texans executive director Michael Quinn Sullivan responded to calls seeking comment for this story. A spokesman for Abbott declined to comment.

Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said Dunn is a powerful force in the Legislature.

“His agenda is one that Texas elected officials are very aware of and sensitive to,” Jillson said.

Lawmakers are also acutely aware of the agenda of the Koch brothers, billionaire conservatives who have spent heavily to support Republican candidates nationwide. Eric O’Keefe is a Citizens for Self-Governance board member who lives in Wisconsin and has a long history of political and financial ties to the wealthy brothers. The Koch brothers and related groups have given Texas lawmakers more than $900,000 since 2010. Abbott received $132,000 from the Koch brothers in 2013 and 2014.

Donations to Dunn and O’Keefe’s Citizens for Self-Governance group indicate that its Constitution-amending project is gathering steam, both politically and financially. According to tax records, contributions to CSG have grown from $1.8 million in 2011 to $5.7 million in 2015.

Meckler says thousands of motivated individuals are the source of the Constitution-amending project’s full coffers.

But there’s no way to verify that claim. In its 2013 tax filings, CSG declined to name its contributors, citing worries that identifying them would “chill the donors’ First Amendment right to associate in private with the organization.”

CSG also operates at least two "dark money" groups, the Alliance for Self-Governance and Convention of the States Action. Those groups are not required to disclose the sources of their funding.

“We actually don’t know who is funding this group,” said Jay Riestenberg, campaigns and states media strategist with Common Cause. “We do know they have a lot of money and a lot of activists and a lot of people sent from other states to just push for this nonstop throughout legislative sessions.”

Meckler said the Convention of States Project is working closely with Abbott, Patrick, Birdwell and Reps. Rick Miller and Phil King to see that the bill makes it out of the Legislature. The organization, he said, has more than 115,000 volunteers in Texas this year, compared with 26,000 in 2015 when a similar bill passed in the House but failed in the Senate. Lawmakers, he said, are getting calls from thousands of people who support the notion of a convention of states.

“There literally isn’t a day when you go to the Capitol that you won’t meet conventionists wandering the halls and working with their legislators,” he said.

Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury (left) visits with Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, in the Senate chamber on Tuesday during debate over the convention of states legislation. (The Associated Press) (AP)

The only convention of the states called in U.S. history was the one that resulted in the Constitution that Americans live under today. That document has been amended 27 times – none of them through a convention of states.

Since the 1970s, there have been fitful efforts to launch a convention, but they’ve fizzled.

Meckler said he is confident that with 2.1 million supporters nationally, momentum is building toward a successful effort to bring government closer to the people.

“There’s never been a movement, there’s never been an organization,” he said. “We’ve already done the impossible. The rest, we’ll get it done.”

But some conservatives fear a convention could backfire and lead to greater restrictions on guns and money in politics and increased overall power for the federal government. And critics on both sides of the aisle worry the unprecedented process could invite mayhem and further poison the nation's vitriolic political scene. It would also raise questions about the years-long process of ratification.

“The idea of allowing several dozen to a hundred yahoos from across the country to reconsider that venerable document seems a long shot,” Jillson said. “But not as much of a long shot as it was six months ago or a year ago.”

Staff writer Jon McClure contributed to this report.