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GOP Fight for Comptroller Gets Jolt Amid
Revelations on Epstein Ranch Purchase
NM Official Urges Probe into Claims of Bodies Near Epstein Ranch
Capitol Inside
February 13, 2026
The Santa Fe New Mexican threw a curve in the primary competition for Texas comptroller on Friday when it revealed that the family of the frontrunning Republican in the race purchased Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch several years after his death in a New York prison in 2019.
The newspaper uncovered the transaction in a state where land sales can still be anonymous - and it made the connection between comptroller contender Don Huffines and the disgraced financier and convicted sex trafficker public just three days after a report on a probe into an allegation of young girls being buried near the ranch in Santa Fe County.
The Huffines campaign said his family acquired the land in New Mexico after it was listed at a public auction in 2023. Huffines consultant Allen Blakemore suggested that the family bought the ranch sight unseen and hadn't been on the property before the auction listing. According to the New Mexican, the ranch was purchased by a limited liability company that was created a month before the property changed hands. Blakemore said in an email that the proceeds from the auction were supposed to be used to benefit Epstein victims.
The New Mexican reported that the San Rafael Ranch LLC acquired the property and changed the name to the San Rafael Ranch. The property was listed for sale in 2021 at a price of almost $28 million before reportedly falling as low as $18 million. New Mexico allows the anonymous ownership of property through limited liability companies with sales prices undisclosed.
There have been no allegations of wrongdoing or illegal behavior on the part of the candidate for statewide office or his family or agents for the LLC. But the link to Epstein - no matter how tenuous or innocent it may be - was a bombshell development with the potential to knock a well-oiled campaign that appeared to be gaining momentum off track just days before early voting for the primary election is set to get under way on Wednesday.
A University of Houston poll earlier this week showed Huffines leading Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick by a dozen points with 33 percent support. Comptroller Kelly Hancock - the incumbent who's never won the job at the ballot box - finished 20 percentage points by Huffines in the UH survey. Capitol Inside predicted on Thursday that Huffines and Craddick appeared to have the best shots for advancing to a spring runoff election with their showings in the primary election on March 3.
Huffines was a tea party original who captured a Texas Senate seat in the Dallas area in 2014 when Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick were elected initially to the posts they're seeking again this year. But Democratic State Senator Nathan Johnson of Dallas unseated Huffines four years later on the strength of blue wave that swept Democrats to victories in 12 state House, two Texas Senate and two congressional districts that Republicans were attempting to defend.
Huffines sought to oust Abbott in the primary election the last time the governor sought re-election in 2022. But Huffines came in third in the GOP primary election in a field of eight with a disappointing 12 percent of the vote while Abbott advanced to the general election with 66 percent. The current Dallas GOP chairman, Allan West, gave up a job as the state Republican Party chair to run for governor in 2022 as well. West claimed runner-up honors in the primary that year with 12 percent of the vote.
Huffines has seized the favorite role in the primary competition for comptroller due in large part to a massive advantange in the amount of money that he's poured into his second statewide bid in four years. Huffines loaned his campaign $15.25 million late last year - and he's supplmented that with contributions in the $6 million vicinity - pushing his total take for the comptroller's race past the $21 million mark after the first three weeks in January.
Huffines has to hope now that the Epstein connection doesn't dog his campaign the way it's done for President Donald Trump. The revelations on the ownership of a ranch that belonged to Epstein may have no effect on the Huffines campaign. But it could.
more to come ...
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