The Republican and Democrat running for Texas agriculture commissioner both question whether the other is eligible to run for the office.
Neither Republican Nate Sheets nor Democrat Clayton Tucker have held political office before, but one of them will replace longtime Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
Miller has led the Texas Department of Agriculture since 2015, but he lost in the Republican primary earlier this year to Sheets, a honey entrepreneur and former Christian missionary from the Dallas area.
But Tucker, a political organizer who grew up on his family's ranch near Lampasas, claims that Sheets does not meet the legal requirements to lead the Texas Department of Agriculture.
And Sheets says the same about Tucker.
"My opponent says I'm not eligible to run for this office," Sheets said. "When you live in a glass house, you shouldn't throw rocks."
The candidates
Sheets and Tucker are running to lead an agency with a large portfolio. As part of its mission to support Texas' farmers and ranchers, its tasks include administering public school lunch programs, regulating commercial scales and issuing licenses to grow hemp.
The campaign also comes at a time when rural economies are being pinched by the rising costs of goods like diesel fuel and fertilizer. Many rural Texans are also concerned about losing land to infrastructure such as data centers and renewable energy, as well as encroaching cities.
Tucker, 35, is the secretary of the Texas Farmer's Union. He has worked as a political organizer, an educator and at the RX Ranch, his family's property near Lampasas.
After a career as a Christian missionary, Sheets, 56, started a honey business after buying a beehive as a hobby for him and his wife.
The hobby grew into an empire. Sheets sold his honey under the brand "Nature Nate's," and included his personal cell phone number on the label.
"You'd be shocked at how many people would actually call," Sheets said. "I had thousands and thousands and thousands of people call over those years."
Sheets spoke to the Texas Standard at a campaign event in Giddings, about an hour east of Austin. He's stopping in rural areas of the state in the runup to the election in a large orange-and-blue tour bus, dotted in signatures by supporters in Sharpie.
Sheets has raised more money than Tucker, but he's also been able to tap into his personal resources to power his campaign.
Sheets has loaned his campaign over $250,000 of his own funds. Employees of his have also spent time working on his campaign, according to campaign finance reports.
The Republican's biggest donors include James Moyer, a prolific donor from Sabine County, oil and gas consultant Douglas Scharbauer, and Amarillo conservative megadonor Alex Fairly. Sheets has also received over $150,000 from the Texas Farm Bureau's political action committee.
Tucker's major backers include The Eagles' Don Henley, who contributed $50,000 to the Democrat's campaign. He also received $10,000 from the James Talarico campaign, and from Dallas-area writer Amanda Jay.
Policy positions
Tucker, the Democrat, lays many of the problems afflicting rural Texans at the feet of big business. As an example, he pointed to the meatpacking industry — in which just four companies control over 80 percent of the U.S. market.
"Even if I can't a hundred percent break all of them up myself [as ag commissioner], I can for sure get people to start paying attention to them and start shining the light on their misdeeds," Tucker said.
Sheets has pitched himself as a business-minded candidate who can help improve economic prospects for farmers and ranchers — and help bring down costs for consumers.
One of his proposals is to make it easier for grocery shoppers to find local products. He wants to create an online marketplace on the Texas Department of Agriculture website for the state's producers and establish places in communities where people can buy from nearby producers.
"I think there should be a Go Texan farmers market at every single elementary school across Texas. Let moms come down and drop off their kids on Wednesday morning, go over and go buy her things for the week. So we just need to be more thoughtful, more innovative, and create as much opportunity for consumers to buy from local producers," Sheets said.
Tucker's made slowing down data center development in Texas a centerpiece of his campaign.
One of his proposals is to commission independent "agricultural impact studies" for any new data center in order to gather data about its water and power use.
"I will want these ag impact studies done …so that we have verified provable studies of how much of our resources will be used that can then be given to county commissions or to city councils," Tucker said.
Anthony Rivera Straine, of Austin, volunteered for Tucker's campaign in part because of the Democrat's position on data centers. Although the agriculture commissioner does not have the power to approve or deny the construction of a given project, Rivera Straine is confident that Tucker can slow down their progress in Texas nonetheless.
"Especially when it comes to water rights in Texas, I know that the agriculture commission has sway there, as well as rural land use. And so wherever he can put pressure on that, I'm sure that he will," Rivera Straine said.
The issue has aligned Tucker with Miller, who has called for Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session to establish better rules for data center development. He and Tucker have made public appearances together to discuss the issue.
Miller published an editorial on Monday, the first day of early voting, urging Texans not to vote for Sheets. The outgoing agriculture commissioner questioned Sheets' judgment and said he was too soft on data center development.
"I was the first to call for a moratorium on unchecked data center construction. Democrat Clayton Tucker joined my call soon afterward. But Nate Sheets? He's conspicuously missing in action," Miller wrote.
Miller said that as agriculture commissioner, Tucker would defend "our water, farmland, property rights, and rural communities against unchecked corporate expansion."
Miller, who questioned whether Sheets was eligible to hold the agriculture commissioner's office during their primary race, brought it up again in the editorial.
"If elected, [Sheets] cannot serve. That's the fact," he said.
Miller's chumminess with Tucker irks Sheets, his fellow Republican.
"Sid Miller is partnering up with Clayton Tucker to make sure that I lose and the governor loses because he wants to see the people that beat him go down," Sheets said. "He is the biggest RINO [Republican in Name Only] of all. And I think he might even be a Democrat."
Sheets has sounded a softer alarm on data centers than Tucker, but he still has concerns about their effect on rural Texas.
"One of the impacts of data centers is it's throwing off the economics of land. What was $800 an acre land, now it's $15,000 an acre of land," Sheets said, noting how much more difficult that's made it for young, would-be farmers to break into the industry.
Sheets wants local governments to have more tools to regulate data centers, and fewer tax abatements for the projects.
Doris Stubing owns a ranch in Maxwell, Texas that's been in her family since 1893. She's concerned about data centers and pipelines encroaching on her land, as well as the cost of doing business for farmers. She plans to vote for Sheets.
"I just think he's an excellent choice for the Republican Party that we have been lacking in this industry for so long. We haven't really had anybody that will get out and help us," Stubing said. "The cost of everything like the diesel fuel is so high now …and we just need a lot of help."
Both candidates want to use the office to support regenerative agriculture: A set of farming practices which prioritizes soil health and sustainable crop production.
Tucker supports making recreational marijuana legal in Texas. Sheets does not.
Eligibility
The candidates' biggest disagreement, though, may be whether the other is eligible to hold the office.
The Texas Agriculture Code lays out specific qualifications for the state's agriculture commissioner. There are four ways to qualify:
- be engaged in "the business of agriculture" for at least five of the last 10 years
- work in an agriculture-related government agency for the five years before assuming office
- own or operate a farm, ranch, or timbering land for five of the last 10 years
- work for an agricultural producers' group, such as the Texas Cotton Association or the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, for five years
In late September, attorneys for Tucker sent a letter to Texas GOP Chair D'rinda Randall claiming Sheets did not meet any of the requirements.
"If you agree with us that the record demonstrates that Mr. Sheets is not qualified, it is your additional duty to declare him ineligible to serve as Texas Commissioner of Agriculture," Tucker's lawyers wrote in the letter.
Tucker says that Sheets' beekeeping experience does not qualify him for the position.
"The law in that particular code doesn't really list beekeeping," Tucker said. "Should it list beekeeping? I personally think it probably should, but that's not the current letter of the law and we do have to follow the law."
Sheets refutes Tucker's claims. He says he is definitely qualified to be Texas Agriculture Commissioner through his beekeeping and a ranch he's owned near McKinney since 2012. In fact, Sheets says, if anyone should be concerned about not meeting the office's prerequisites, it's his Democratic opponent.
"Now take that same standard and go apply it to Tucker," Sheets said.
Sheets pointed to the fact that Tucker's personal financial statement lists his occupation as an organizer for the Trade Justice Education Fund.
"He doesn't own any land. His own personal financial statement says he's a community organizer and he's a rancher because he's wearing a cowboy hat. That's total, you know, BS," Sheets said.
Tucker maintains that he, too, is eligible to serve as agriculture commissioner because of his work on his family's ranch.
"Between 2016, '17, 2018, is where I started really taking over the fence-building, the operations, the cattle bit," Tucker said.
Despite the conflict, both candidates say they will not take legal action after the election to press their claims about the other's eligibility for the office.
Naina Srivastava contributed reporting to this story.
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