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NYT
AUSTIN
Steve Mostyn, a Texas trial lawyer and one of the nation's leading Democratic donors, who spent a fortune in a long effort to turn his reliably red home state blue, died Wednesday at his home in Houston. He was 46.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the death a suicide resulting from a gunshot wound to the head.
His wife and fellow lawyer, Amber Mostyn, said his death had come after a"sudden onset and battle with a mental health issue."
The death jolted Texas politicians in both parties and left Democrats grieving the loss of a friend and wealthy patron who had been at the centre of the party's struggle to wrest power from Republicans. Texas Democrats have not won a statewide political office since 1994.
"Texas has lost one of its giants for justice and one of its most important voices for those without the ability or means to fight for themselves," said Wendy Davis, a former Democratic state senator who ran for governor there in 2014, losing to Greg Abbott, a Republican and the current governor.
The Mostyns and their law firm's political action committee helped bankroll Davis' campaign as they donated nearly $10 million to state races during the 2014 election cycle.
The Mostyns had also been major donors at the national level.
They gave nearly $3.5 million to candidates for federal office in the 2016 election, making them the 64th-largest donors in the country, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics. Every cent went to Democrats.
Mostyn also gave two contributions of $1 million each to Priorities USA Action, a Democratic super PAC that supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, according to the centre's outreach coordinator, Brendan Quinn.
In an interview with The Texas Tribune in September, Mostyn signalled that he wanted to scale down his political activities and was encouraging others to"step up" to help support the Democratic cause.
