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Farris Wilks
Status
Born in 1952. Living in Cisco, Texas.
Criminal status: No personal convictions
Summary
Farris Wilks is a Texas oil billionaire and pastor who co-founded fracking company Frac Tech with his brother Dan Wilks, eventually selling their combined stake for $3.5 billion in 2011. He reinvested that wealth into a broad campaign to reshape American politics along Christian nationalist lines, building what ProPublica describes as the most powerful political machine in Texas alongside business partner Tim Dunn.
Wilks leads the Assembly of Yahweh 7th Day church near Cisco, Texas, combining his pastoral role with direct political coordination. He co-owns The Daily Wire and funds PragerU, two conservative media outlets identified by the Center for Countering Digital Hate as top American sources of climate misinformation. His Thirteen Foundation has distributed roughly $100 million to right-wing political, religious, and anti-abortion causes.
Business Relationships
Wilks' most significant business relationship is with fellow Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn, with whom he built a coordinated network of PACs, think tanks, and nonprofits to advance Christian nationalist policy in Texas. The pair jointly fund the Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice PAC, which ProPublica documented as operating to purge Republicans whose votes they cannot rely on.
Wilks provided $4.77 million in seed capital to launch The Daily Wire alongside co-founder Ben Shapiro, and remains a co-owner of the outlet. He also co-funded PragerU with his brother Dan Wilks, providing at least $1 million through the Thirteen Foundation in 2015 alone.
Ownership
Wilks maintains financial control through two main vehicles. The Thirteen Foundation, which he and his wife Jo Ann established with $100 million of their Frac Tech proceeds, serves as the primary grant-making arm distributing to political, religious, and anti-abortion organizations. He holds a co-ownership stake in The Daily Wire, a conservative media company reporting $100 million in annual revenues, giving him ongoing influence over conservative media narratives.
His political influence operates through PACs including the Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice (formerly Defend Texas Liberty), which he co-funds with Tim Dunn. The PAC concentrates donations on state-level races to elect legislators aligned with their agenda, contributing $375,000 to a single Railroad Commission race in early 2026.
Wilks and his brother also control ProFrac Holding Corp, an oilfield services company where SEC filings show Farris personally holds a 35.7 percent beneficial stake and Dan holds 47.9 percent, together giving the brothers majority control over the company's operations and workforce decisions.
Family & Heirs
Wilks and his wife Jo Ann jointly founded the Thirteen Foundation, each contributing $50 million at founding. His brother Dan Wilks was his co-founder at Frac Tech and continues to share his political and philanthropic priorities, including co-funding PragerU. The brothers maintain separate households and foundations but coordinate closely on political giving.
Evidence
2013-07-01 - 😈 - Pastor sermons declare fossil fuel use God's will and dismiss climate change as outside human control
2015-01-01 - 😈 - Thirteen Foundation donates USD 1M to PragerU for climate-skeptical content
2015-04-08 - 😈 - Wilks brothers donate USD 15M to Ted Cruz presidential super PAC, largest known 2016 race donation at the time
2015-09-01 - 😈 - Wilks provides USD 4.77M seed capital to launch Daily Wire, later named top U.S. source of climate misinformation
2016-10-07 - 😈 - Wilks brothers purchase 172,000 Idaho acres and immediately close public hunting, fishing, and recreation access
2017-10-01 - 😈 - Wilks injects USD 1.25M into Empower Texans PAC and over USD 3.5M to Texas campaigns to purge moderate Republicans
2024-05-15 - 😈 - Wilks brothers fund school voucher campaign aimed at diverting Texas public education funding to private Christian schools
2024-10-02 - 😈 - ProPublica: Wilks and Dunn built most powerful Christian nationalist political machine in Texas to reshape government
2025-06-10 - 😈 - Fossil fuel billionaire Wilks bankrolls anti-trans movement through USD 4.7M Daily Wire investment
2026-02-01 - 😈 - Farjo Holdings, an investment company overseen by Wilks and his wife, gives USD 150,000 to Don Huffines Texas comptroller campaign
2026-03-27 - 😈 - ProFrac, majority-controlled by the Wilks brothers, lays off 157 workers at its Vernal, Utah oil field via WARN Act notice
2026-03-31 - 😈 - Wilks-funded PAC backs far-right challenger Bo French to control Texas Railroad Commission oil and gas regulator
Analysis
Wilks combines two forms of concentrated power that are usually separate: the financial leverage of a billionaire and the institutional authority of a pastor. By using the pulpit to legitimize political goals, and using oil wealth to fund the political infrastructure to achieve them, he has built a machine designed to be harder to challenge than either alone. His theological framing of climate change as beyond human concern while funding climate denial media is a direct alignment of religious doctrine with financial self-interest.
His pattern extends beyond politics into the media ecosystem. By co-founding and co-owning The Daily Wire, and substantially funding PragerU, Wilks has funded two of America's highest-traffic sources of climate misinformation and anti-LGBTQ content. The investment in these outlets is not passive: his wealth seeded their existence, and his interests are reflected in their editorial direction.
In October 2023, Defend Texas Liberty, the PAC that had received $4.8 million in personal contributions from Wilks, saw its president host white supremacist Nick Fuentes for a seven-hour meeting, prompting the Texas GOP to formally bar neo-Nazis and antisemites from the party and several officeholders to return the PAC's money. Texas Monthly reporting indicates the fallout, combined with mounting pressure from family members and his own Cisco community, contributed to Wilks' subsequent retreat from public political spending, though he continued at least one substantial donation as recently as February 2026.
Questions
Should billionaires who use religious institutions as coordinating infrastructure for political campaigns face the same transparency requirements as secular political actors?
Does co-owning a media company that systematically spreads climate misinformation constitute a distinct form of harm from simply funding political candidates?
How should we weigh the use of tax-exempt church networks for voter mobilization against the legal framework governing 501©(3) charitable organizations?
Is blocking public land access that communities have used for generations a defensible exercise of private property rights, or a form of resource capture that harms rural communities?
Redemption Arc
Wilks has become far less visible in Texas politics since 2024. Texas Monthly reporting attributes the shift to fallout from the Nick Fuentes scandal and to years of pressure from relatives and Cisco community members grown tired of the attention his political spending brought, and notes his relationship with Tim Dunn has cooled.
The retreat is not total: Farjo Holdings, an investment vehicle he oversees with his wife, gave $150,000 to a Texas comptroller candidate in February 2026, and his PAC continued contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Texas Railroad Commission race the following month. His co-ownership of The Daily Wire and ongoing PragerU funding mean the media infrastructure he built continues operating independent of any personal political pullback.