(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott rarely endorses Republicans in primary races, but he has endorsed Nate Sheets for Agriculture commissioner, saying the incumbent commissioner, Sid Miller, “has been an utter failure at his job.”
Miller was first elected in 2014 and reelected twice. He’s running for his fourth term. Since he took office in 2015, he’s been accused of public corruption and at odds with the governor and Republican-led state legislature.
In his first term, the Texas Ethics Commission fined Miller for using taxpayer funds for out-of-state trips investigated by the Texas Rangers. In his second term, his longtime campaign consultant, Todd Smith, was indicted on charges of commercial bribery and theft in a kickback scheme involving selling hemp licenses regulated by the Texas Department of Agriculture. He pleaded guilty and took a deal.
After Miller was reelected to his third term, he hired Smith as his chief of staff. Miller said it was “the best hire I ever made.” Miller blamed the Travis County district attorney but the Texas Rangers investigated him and former TDA employees expressed fears about Smith.
On Tuesday, Sheets’ campaign called on Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate Miller for allegedly “using taxpayer-funded advertising … to boost his personal name identification just weeks before the March 3 Republican primary.” Miller has launched 30 paid advertisements this month despite campaign filings showing only $4,300 raised.
In 2015, in Miller’s first term, a bipartisan group of 72 House members chastised Miller for imposing dramatic fee increases on the agricultural community. “Fees with no demonstrable benefit to the people of Texas or the agriculture industry are unjustifiable,” they said. They questioned if Miller was “attempting to generate fee revenue to fund programs and activities beyond” what the legislature approved in 2011. The fee increases generated nearly $6.5 million more than needed, a state auditor found. TDA said the Legislative Budget Board denied funding requests and limited increases in appropriations.
More recently, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said when she was a state senator and carried a TDA sunset bill, “I discovered how deep the animus between the Legislature and … Sid Miller truly was. The entire Agency and its critical mission to support Texas farmers and ranchers was in jeopardy due to the misconduct and misbehavior of Miller.” She says she “prevented [TDA’s] complete dismantling because I did not want the entire Agriculture community to suffer due to the failures of Sid Miller.”
Buckingham, who’s endorsed Sheets, says there’s an “opportunity to change leadership at TDA, ushering in a new era of accountability, an end to disruptive antics (both personal and legal), and a return to focus on its essential purpose.”
In addition to conflict with the legislature, Miller has acknowledged publicly that he hasn’t spoken with the governor or worked with him during his entire tenure.
In a radio interview last month, Abbott said Miller’s “been an utter failure in his job as Ag Commissioner. There are character flaws with him that do not reflect positively on the state of Texas.” He said Sheets will “uphold the rule of law and restore integrity to the Office of Commissioner. Texans deserve an agriculture commissioner who is focused on promoting Texas agriculture, with zero tolerance for criminality.”
In response, Miller, who’s sued the governor several times, said, “The governor just doesn’t like me. I think it’s personal with him … my management is impeccable.”
Miller claims he’s brought “common-sense reform to TDA,” eliminating years of organic certification backlogs, reshaped field operations, increased the number of consumer protection inspections and reduced “the miles traveled by TDA inspectors by more than half a million miles a year.” He also launched a Farm Fresh Program in Texas public schools, bringing in local produce.
The TDA administers the school lunch program. Under Miller, Texas ranks 44th in the country for nutritional value in school lunch programs. More than 10 years ago, Miller reversed a previous TDA ban on deep fat fryers and soda machines in schools.
At a campaign event in Houston, Sheets said his goal is to restore credibility to TDA, save Texas farms and improve children’s health. “This week, we lost 68 farms in Texas and last week and the week before, and all the way back to 2018, we’ve lost 18,000 farms and everybody asks why,” he said, expounding on his plan to reverse this.
Sheets is described as the Texas version of RFK Jr., with a mission to Make Texas Healthy Again. He’s traveling the state with Abbott, including recently joining U.S. Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins at a New World screwworm facility in south Texas.
Miller wasn’t there. He wanted to use a different approach “with or without the USDA.” In response, the USDA said Miller was “blatantly disregarding tried and true NWS offensive strategies in favor of clickbait publicity stunts.”
