Dan Wilks' desire to infuse American politics with his brand of morality last year drove him to join with his family to donate $15 million to support Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, making the billionaire one of the biggest donors in American politics. | Getty Cruz mega-donors’ path to ‘kingdom building’ The religious billionaire Dan Wilks had run-ins with the law.

A Texas billionaire who has played a key role in boosting Ted Cruz's presidential campaign — including donating millions to a super PAC and facilitating outreach to hundreds of influential religious conservatives — was charged with assaulting a police officer and accused of threatening his estranged wife during a rough patch of his life, 25 years ago, according to court documents obtained by POLITICO.

Dan Wilks was a key figure behind a private confab to recruit support for Cruz from 300 evangelical leaders and donors last month at a ranch owned by his brother, Farris Wilks, outside their hometown of Cisco, Texas. The brothers, who earned their fortune in fracking, cited a belief that Cruz would infuse American politics with biblical principles when they and their wives donated a combined $15 million to a super PAC supporting the Texas senator's campaign. The family's donations made them the biggest disclosed donors of 2016 so far, and suddenly cast them into the spotlight on a national political stage on which mega-donors have become public figures in their own rights and even campaign issues.


It’s a far cry from the life Dan Wilks was living in 1991, as described in the documents on file in Texas courthouses in Denton, Eastland and Comanche counties. Wilks was scraping just to get by and enmeshed in messy divorce proceedings, during which his estranged wife accused him of threatening her. He also fell behind on child support, the documents show.

He was arrested that year for aggravated assault of a police officer in a Dallas suburb, about two hours west of Cisco. He eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of assault with a recommended sentence of one year of probation and a $500 fine.

Laura Barnett, a spokeswoman for the Wilks family, did not respond to questions about the circumstances behind the incident that led to the charge. “Dan and the entire Wilks family have the deepest respect for law enforcement and have supported law-enforcement personnel and efforts for decades," she said in a brief statement to POLITICO. "This incident from 25 years ago was properly and responsibly adjudicated.”

The case is the type of thing that could become political fodder during an increasingly bitter election season in which violence between police and civilians has become a fraught campaign issue. Cruz himself has condemned Black Lives Matter protestors for using what he alleged is “rabid anti-police language, literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers. … That is disgraceful.”

Dan Wilks’ worldview deserves more scrutiny than his past, argued David Lane, an influential Christian conservative organizer who has hosted a series of closed-door meetings of leading GOP politicians and evangelical activists. The Wilks brothers attended one such event in 2013 in Iowa, where Sens. Cruz and Rand Paul delivered keynote addresses. And the charitable foundations funded by the brothers — Dan Wilks’ Heavenly Father’s Foundation and Farris Wilks' Thirteen Foundation — over the past few years have donated a combined total of $2.9 million to the group that organizes the conferences, the American Family Association, according to the foundations' tax filings.

Farris Wilks' foundation also has funded several of the Christian conservative groups whose leaders attended the December gathering at his ranch to boost Cruz, including Focus on the Family (which has received $1.9 million), the Family Research Council ($530,000) and Wallbuilders ($115,000). Both brothers' foundations also donated to a number of local churches and community organizations, including at least one that offers crisis counseling to victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, and even $125,000 to help the local district attorney's office cover a budget shortfall.

“The Wilks [brothers] are unique, it seems that many/most people who cash out take their windfall, disappear and enjoy the good life because they earned it,” said Lane in an email. “The Wilks evidently believe that God gave them the money and they are using it for His kingdom building,” wrote Lane. While he said he was unaware of Dan Wilks’ past, Lane cited his own life as an example of redemption. Calling himself “one of the wildest men that ever lived: drugs, wine, women and song,” he said that 36 years ago, “I had a transformation [born again], and it changed my life.” So, he said, “Anyone who is plugged in to the socket, I'm pulling for,” using a phrase for leading an observant life.

Dan Wilks, 59, and Farris Wilks, 63, rose from humble beginnings to become billionaires almost overnight when they sold their fracking equipment company in 2011 for $3.5 billion. Since then, they have donated increasing sums to groups opposing gay marriage and abortion rights, quickly becoming among the most coveted donors to a movement that often has lagged financially behind the national security and economic conservative wings of the right. Conservative fundraisers of all stripes have clamored for their support. Sources familiar with the interactions say the brothers politely declined entreaties from fundraising operatives for the powerful network helmed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which is largely agnostic on social issues. The sources said representatives for the Wilkses privately expressed concern with David Koch’s support for gay marriage.

By contrast, Cruz — whose campaign strategy relies heavily on locking up the support of evangelical leaders, donors and voters — has called homosexuality "a choice", and opposes gay marriage. The Wilks brothers grew fond of Cruz, their home-state senator, during his days as Texas’ solicitor general, when he championed legal fights embraced by the religious right. He successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that it was constitutional for Texas to display the Ten Commandments on its state Capitol grounds, but in a separate case, he couldn’t persuade the justices to uphold a Texas law banning homosexual sex.

As the presidential campaign approached, operatives close to Cruz assiduously courted a few extremely wealthy religious conservative families, including the Wilks family, which signaled to conservative political operatives that it was considering increasing its political giving and profile, according to sources who talk with the Wilkses.

“The family knew that once they started to play more in politics, that they would become more public,” said one operative who has worked with the Wilkses. “I’m not sure that they’re going to get scared away easily. It’s kind of hard to scare away people who are worth billions of dollars and live in a small town in Texas, because what do they care?”

Two weeks after Cruz officially entered the race, his allies created four separate super PACs. Each bore a variation of the name, Keep the Promise, with three intended to be funded and controlled by a different family. Within days, Farris Wilks and his wife, JoAnn Wilks, each donated $5 million to Keep the Promise III, followed a couple months later by matching $2.5 million donations from Dan Wilks and his wife, Staci Wilks. Their cash comprised the entirety of the super PAC’s $15 million haul through the first half of 2015, the period covered by the most recent publicly available super PAC disclosures with the Federal Election Commission.

When the family's donations were revealed, the brothers issued a handful of anodyne statements to news outlets praising Cruz as “a leader that will stand up for biblical morals” (Dan to CNN) who “believes in the morality of the free market, in keeping our country safe, and in the right of the unborn not to be killed in their mother’s womb” (Farris to Reuters).

Cruz returned the praise last month before attending the event at Farris Wilks' ranch, praising the family for being "willing to devote their resources to fighting for principles of religious liberty, fighting to defend life, fighting to defend marriage, fighting to defend the constitutional liberties on which this country was founded." He added, "I am grateful that they have been very, very supportive, both in terms of helping raise money for our campaign directly and also their work on the super PAC, focused on helping us win."

The Wilks-funded PAC sponsored the event at Farris Wilks' ranch last month, where Cruz and his wife spoke about their faith and prayed with the audience for 90 minutes, and the Christian rock band The Newsboys performed. Afterward, attendees recorded video endorsements of the Texas senator's presidential bid.

The super PAC is run partly by Farris Wilks’ son-in-law Jon Francis, who also is the executive director of Farris Wilks' and JoAnn Wilks’ Thirteen Foundation. Through Wednesday, the family’s PAC had reported spending a relatively paltry $253,000 on digital ads supporting Cruz, causing some of Cruz’s allies to grumble privately that the PAC could be doing more to boost the Texas senator in the crucial weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

And sources familiar with the PAC say the Wilkses through the end of last year had not donated any additional cash beyond their initial $15 million seed funding, and they worry that they may shy away because of the sudden attention on the family.

“It’s one thing to say you can take the heat, but when you actually get punched in the face the first time, that’s when it gets interesting,” said one Cruz ally, when apprised of the contents of the documents detailing Dan Wilks’ past.

In 1977, 21-year-old Dan married his first wife, then 16, and the couple had four children in five years. By 1988, they had separated and she filed for divorce. In an application for a restraining order against Dan Wilks, which was granted by the court, she testified that he “has exhibited threatening, harassing and injurious actions” against her and “has threatened to damage, destroy, secrete and/or change the nature of the parties’ property.”

The woman, whose name POLITICO is withholding, could not be reached for comment.

During the divorce proceedings, Wilks indicated that he had “net resources” of $24,000 a year, and, after the divorce, the judge found that he had fallen behind on his child support.

While the custody battle was ongoing, Wilks was charged with aggravated assault against a police officer in Flower Mound, Texas. It's unclear from the documents whether the incident was linked in any way to the divorce or child custody fight, though the documents show that Wilks' attorney sought testimony from both the ex-wife and one of the couple's young children.

According to the brief description of the assault in the indictment, Wilks “did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause bodily injury” to the officer, whose name POLITICO is withholding, “by hitting [the officer] on the face, head and shoulder” while the officer was carrying out his job.

The officer, who has since left the force, declined to comment through an intermediary. But Flower Mound Police Captain Richard Brooks, who served with the officer and was also called to testify during Wilks’ case, in an interview with POLITICO called the officer “extremely professional.”

Brooks said that neither Wilks’ name, nor the case, rang a bell for him, and that such confrontations are not uncommon for officers.

“I wish I had the mental capacity to remember all of these, but I don’t,” he said, explaining that it might time some time to locate the police report in response to a request from POLITICO.

None of the conservative operatives interviewed by POLITICO were aware of the incident in Wilks’ past. Most expressed surprise, describing the Wilks brothers as God-fearing modest guys who grew up poor in an extremely observant but nontraditional church called the Assembly of Yahweh 7th Day Church, which embraces Old and New Testament teachings and interprets the Bible literally. It was founded by their father, and is now overseen by Farris Wilks, who serves as lead pastor and still preaches.

Dan Wilks attends a different church nearby, and has assumed a somewhat lower profile. The URL www.danwilks.com automatically redirects to his brother’s website. It praises Farris as “quiet and unassuming” and “proof that the American dream is still alive and achievable,” and only mentions Dan in passing.

Farris Wilks in his sermons has discussed forgiveness, though usually for what he sees as sins related to abortion or homosexuality.

In a 2013 sermon about the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah, Wilks said, “Sometimes we need repentance, and if we turn and ask for repentance, then we are given that. Just like the sin of homosexuality. It can be forgiven as well, but someone has to change their mode of living.” According to a transcription of the sermon by Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow with the liberal group People for the American Way, Wilks continued, “If we want forgiveness, we have to also do the things that, that are meant for repentance. We have to do the things, that, yes, we can have repentance of almost anything that we do, but we have to change and not do those things again.”