Q&A: Get to know the candidates running for Texas agriculture commissioner

What would your top priorities be if elected?

My top priorities are cutting burdensome regulations, defending property rights, and ending wasteful government spending. I will modernize [Texas Department of Agriculture] operations through market-driven solutions, remove bureaucratic barriers for independent farmers and ranchers and champion transparent, fiscally responsible management to foster sustainable agricultural innovation across Texas.

How will you work to promote biosecurity and eradicate the New World Screwworm from Texas?

I will prioritize sound ecological science and coordinate targeted monitoring with livestock producers to maintain early-detection networks. By leveraging targeted sterile insect technique biological controls and streamlining producer reporting without imposing heavy-handed bureaucratic mandates, we can stop outbreaks efficiently while safeguarding ranching operations.

How will you ensure Texas consumers can access safe, nutritious agricultural products while supporting farmers and producers?

I will eliminate unnecessary red tape and protectionist rules that restrict direct-to-consumer sales, cottage foods and local processing. Expanding free-market competition empowers producers to innovate and lowers consumer costs. Transparent labeling and market accountability ensure Texans have reliable access to high-quality, nutritious food choices.

What will you do to ensure Texas children can access healthy food at school and throughout the year?

I will streamline state nutrition program administration to cut overhead costs and redirect resources toward real food quality. I support incentivizing local school districts to partner directly with Texas agricultural producers, expanding access to fresh, wholesome food while supporting local farm economies without top-down federal micromanagement.

What do you see as the greatest challenge for Texas in the next 5 years?

Water security and rapid land fragmentation threaten our state’s agricultural future. We must defend private property rights while encouraging voluntary rangeland conservation and voluntary stewardship models. Enabling proactive, market-based resource management ensures Texas agriculture remains resilient and productive amid intense population growth and resource demands.

What would your top priorities be if elected?

My top priorities are cleaning up school lunches and our food supply, making food more affordable by prioritizing Texas farmers and ranchers over foreign processed-food companies, and protecting our land and water. I’ll cut unnecessary taxes and regulations while bringing greater transparency and accountability to the agency.

How will you work to promote biosecurity and eradicate the New World Screwworm from Texas?

Biosecurity must be treated as a national security issue. I’ll lead proactively, not reactively, to strengthen surveillance, secure our border, accelerate detection and response, and deploy proven eradication tools to stop this threat before it decimates Texas cattle and wildlife, disrupts our food supply, and drives up costs for consumers.

How will you ensure Texas consumers can access safe, nutritious agricultural products while supporting farmers and producers?

Texans should feed Texans. I’ll revamp the Go Texan program to connect local producers directly with consumers and retailers to sell more products to more people. Texas producers should get the first shot at supplying schools, agencies and other taxpayer-funded institutions that spend billions on food each year.

What will you do to ensure Texas children can access healthy food at school and throughout the year?

Texas must put more locally grown, whole foods in schools, invest in scratch-cooking kitchens, and prioritize nutrition education. We should expand school gardens where students learn by growing food themselves. When children understand where food comes from and how it affects health, they learn better and build healthier habits.

What do you see as the greatest challenge for Texas in the next 5 years?

We face enormous challenges, from screwworm to data centers and growing pressure on our land and water. Our health matters too; what we eat impacts how we live. We can invest in better food and healthier agriculture on the front end and lower costs and improve quality of life.

What would your top priorities be if elected?

My top priority is to ensure affordable and safe food and water for all Texans. To do that, we must take on the corrupt big shots who are trying to steal our water and destroy our family farmers.

How will you work to promote biosecurity and eradicate the New World Screwworm from Texas?

Currently, we’re only using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to fight the New World Screwworm (NWS). While an important tool, SIT has never historically beaten the NWS by itself. We’ll need to use SIT in combination with SWASS to defeat the NWS and keep Texas livestock, wildlife, and pets safe.

How will you ensure Texas consumers can access safe, nutritious agricultural products while supporting farmers and producers?

We will rebuild our food inspection system to ensure accountability in our food system. Many of the recent food borne illnesses come from food corporations cutting corners. We also need to rebuild our local food system, as smaller operations have a lower chance of creating foodborne illnesses.

What will you do to ensure Texas children can access healthy food at school and throughout the year?

Our ultimate goal is for all school meals to be free and we would not have any ultra-processed foods in our schools. We will fight to defend Summer EBT. We will also work to create community gardens in or around our schools, where kids can start gathering their own food.

What do you see as the greatest challenge for Texas in the next 5 years?

Breaking up the monopolies with a death grip on food production, prices, and distribution. Forbidding surveillance pricing at grocery stores. Stopping the invasion of hyperscale AI data centers that enable the surveillance of hardworking, law-abiding Texans to extract more profits from them; steal their water; and drive up electric rates.