Lone Star Left Endorses Savant Moore For Texas Comptroller

Why Savant Moore is the right choice for Texas Comptroller.

For this endorsement, I had to think hard about what the Texas Comptroller currently does and what we, as progressives, would like to see in a Comptroller. We want a candidate who understands how power actually operates in Texas, especially when that power hides inside budgets, systems, and in decisions most people never see until they’re already paying the price.

Savant Moore is that kind of candidate.

I would describe Moore as a material progressive, someone focused on how policy shows up in real life. Late fees. Penalties. Predatory processes. Underfunded schools. Communities that pay into the system and still get left behind.

He is a systems thinker who understands that harm in Texas is bureaucratic. It is buried in fine print and enforced through complexity and confusion. And he is a class-conscious administrator who recognizes that when government isn’t transparent, the people who suffer first are working families, small businesses, rural communities, and anyone without the time or money to fight back.

Moore understands that real change in a state like Texas happens when you force transparency into places that benefit from obscurity, when you expose how money moves, and when you insist that public dollars serve the public.

Long before filing to run for Texas Comptroller, Savant Moore was showing up as a Houston ISD Trustee during one of the most consequential and difficult periods in the district’s history. He showed up as a parent, a community advocate, and a public servant operating inside a system where authority was limited but accountability still mattered. He has been present in rooms where decisions were made without cameras, without applause, and often without credit. Hundreds of people across Houston can attest to that work because they lived it alongside him.

The office of the Comptroller is about stewardship and whether the state continues to extract from the people least able to absorb the cost, or whether someone finally forces accountability and fairness into a system designed to avoid both.

That is why I am endorsing Savant Moore for Texas Comptroller.

Here’s a little more of Moore’s bio, told by my friend Heather:

What does the Texas Comptroller actually do?

Most Texans hear “Comptroller” and think accountant. That’s not wrong, but it’s incomplete, and it seriously understates the power of the office.

The Texas Comptroller is the state’s chief financial officer. That means this office decides how much money Texas actually has, tracks where it goes, and determines what lawmakers are allowed to spend. Every budget debate in Austin begins with the Comptroller’s numbers. If those numbers are wrong, incomplete, or selectively framed, the entire system tilts in that direction.

The Comptroller collects taxes and fees, oversees state revenue, and manages the state’s financial reporting. But just as important, the office controls how information is presented to the public.

When spending data is hard to access, powerful interests benefit. When fees and penalties are confusing, working families pay more. When audits are weak or inconsistent, waste goes unchecked. And when long-term costs are ignored in favor of short-term political wins, taxpayers end up covering the difference later.

The Comptroller also plays a central role in:

• certifying state contracts

• overseeing tax exemptions and incentives

• auditing public programs

• and ensuring that public money is spent the way lawmakers and voters were told it would be

In other words, this office doesn’t just watch the money. It decides what accountability looks like.

This office has been held by Republicans for decades, during a period when corruption in Texas has become so normalized that many people no longer even expect transparency from state government. We don’t know everything Republican Comptrollers have chosen not to surface in recent years, only that they have consistently fallen in line with Greg Abbott, the most corrupt governor Texas has ever had.

That is how Republican corruption thrives, through silence, selective reporting, and an absence of accountability.

But nowhere is the cost of secrecy more visible and politically protected than in Texas’s relationship with the fossil fuel industry.

For more than a century, oil and gas have shaped Texas’s economy and its politics. What rarely gets discussed is how deeply that influence is embedded in the state’s financial systems. Tax exemptions that never expire, cleanup liabilities that are deferred, incentives that go unreviewed, and long-term costs that never make it into the balance sheet. It is how power maintains itself.

That is why transparency around fossil fuels is not only an environmental priority, but also a fiscal one. And it is exactly the kind of issue the Comptroller is uniquely positioned to confront.

I had a chance to speak to Savant Moore about fossil fuels. I asked whether Texans deserve to know the complete financial picture, including the costs that don’t appear in glossy economic impact reports.

“As Comptroller, I would not regulate fossil fuels, but I would fully account for their impact on Texas finances. That is the job.”

I asked how he would quantify lost revenue from fossil fuel tax exemptions.

“I would publish regular, public reports that clearly quantify the cost of fossil fuel tax exemptions and place them in context with overall state revenue. Transparency is a fiscal responsibility, not an ideological position.”

Then, I asked if he would quantify cleanup liabilities Texas is already responsible for (and it’s a lot).

“Ignoring known costs is not conservative budgeting. It is bad math.”

Personally, I looked all over the Comptroller’s website to find any information related to the money that Texas spends on environmental cleanup. While they did have a page listing the various agencies that handle cleanup, I couldn’t tell you whether taxpayers are annually spending millions or billions on this.

“Texas already carries financial exposure for certain cleanup obligations. Those liabilities should be fully quantified, tracked over time, and incorporated into long-term revenue planning.”

Lastly, I asked Moore if he would publish reports on fiscal waste tied to the oil industry (Republicans have never done this).

“The goal is not to target an industry but to ensure taxpayer money is being used effectively. Waste is waste regardless of who benefits from it.”

He went on.

“Energy prices directly affect severance tax revenue and the stability of the state budget. Sound forecasting allows Texas to plan responsibly rather than react during downturns.”

With oil and energy being such an essential issue to progressive voters in Texas, and given Texas’s long history with the oil industry, which also includes deep Republican corruption, I think his answers reflected someone who has already thought deeply about these issues and developed a plan.

He finished with this:

“Texas can remain an energy leader while demanding fiscal clarity, honest accounting, and long-term planning. That is how you protect workers, communities, and taxpayers at the same time.”

What are Savant Moore’s priorities?

From his website, Moore’s priorities reflect a simple premise. The government should not function as a quiet extraction machine for people with the least time, money, or legal bandwidth to fight back.

He is focused on protecting taxpayers from hidden fees and waste by making state systems more transparent and fairer, pushing for grace periods, plain-language notices, and automatic reminders before penalties are imposed. His view is that the government should correct people before it fines them, not profit from confusion.

That same ethic carries through his commitment to full transparency for every tax dollar. Moore proposes a public-facing, plain-English dashboard that allows Texans to see, search, and question how their money is being spent, without having to wade through buried reports or political spin (like we have now).

He pairs that transparency with practical support for small businesses, recognizing that many owners spend more time navigating paperwork than growing their operations. Moore wants to streamline licensing, eliminate duplicative reporting across agencies, and establish a Comptroller Help Desk. His approach to budgeting prioritizes long-term stability over short-term political fixes, treats surplus funds responsibly, and protects public dollars with the same care families use to protect their own household finances. He also centers rural Texas, arguing that communities that pay into the system deserve equitable returns in the form of infrastructure, broadband access, disaster response, and investment in roads, clinics, and farms. Rural Texans, in his view, should not have to beg for what they have already paid for.

Moore’s priorities also include restoring the Texas HUB Program to ensure women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses have a fair chance to compete for state contracts, strengthening competition while delivering better value for taxpayers.

And in an era of aggressive voucher expansion, he is clear that strong oversight is non-negotiable. Moore calls for strict performance standards, full transparency, regular audits, and enforceable exit clauses for companies managing voucher programs.

Texas does not need another Comptroller who treats the office as a rubber stamp for the governor or a shield for powerful interests.

It needs someone who understands that budgets are moral documents, that transparency is a form of justice, and that silence is often how harm is allowed to continue. The Comptroller’s job is not to make politics easier. It is to make the truth harder to hide.

Savant Moore understands that. And he has shown, both as a Houston ISD trustee and throughout this campaign, that he is willing to do the unglamorous work of forcing clarity where obscurity has long been the norm.

It is also worth noting that Moore is the only Comptroller candidate in this race who has written and published a book on personal finance. A candidate who has spent time thinking seriously about personal finance is uniquely equipped to understand how state finance decisions ripple down to families, workers, and small businesses.

This endorsement is not about personality or party loyalty. It is about stewardship. It is about whether Texas continues to allow quiet extraction to pass as governance, or whether we finally demand a Comptroller who treats public money like it belongs to the public.

That is why I am endorsing Savant Moore for Texas Comptroller.

You can learn more about Savant Moore on his website, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Twitter, and Substack.

If you’re able, consider volunteering.

And if you can afford it, even $5, please consider donating to his campaign.

Most importantly, make a plan to vote. The primary election is March 3.

• February 2, 2026: Last Day to Register to Vote

• February 17, 2026: First Day to Early Vote

• March 3, 2026: Primary Election

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• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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