Data centers and water split the agriculture commissioner candidates, as Democrat challenges GOP nominee's eligibility

The race to run the Texas Department of Agriculture has turned into an argument over data centers, water and whether the Republican nominee meets the legal requirements for the job.

Three names appear for commissioner of agriculture on Grayson County's sample ballot for the Nov. 3 election: Republican Nate Sheets, Democrat Clayton Tucker and Libertarian Austin R. Kelly. Early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30, with a site in Van Alstyne at Grayson College's South Campus library, room 119, according to the county elections office.

Sheets and Tucker laid out their positions in interviews published Monday by the Temple Daily Telegram, the first installment in a series. Kelly was not part of that report.

Two approaches to data centers

Sheets, who founded the Nature Nate's honey company and beat incumbent Sid Miller in the March Republican primary, told the paper he is not against data centers but wants them to give something back to Texas. He cited 450 data centers operating in the state and another 4,800 planned.

He said projects that take farmland should offset it elsewhere, that developers should pay into the Texas Water Fund and the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority, and that counties need more power over projects in unincorporated areas.

"Let's allow data centers to come in, but under our terms that help us solve our issues," Sheets said.

Tucker, who lives in Lampasas and is secretary of the Texas Farmers Union, said building water-hungry data centers in a drought-prone state makes little sense. He said he would halt approvals until water and power use can be checked independently instead of relying on companies' own figures, and he wants the commissioner to push for water policy changes and agricultural impact studies.

He also called for repairing leaking pipes that he said cost the state tens of billions of gallons a year.

"Stop building water hogs," Tucker said.

Tucker is also campaigning on breaking up agricultural monopolies, which he says drive up farm and food costs, while acknowledging the office has limited direct power over them. He has pledged to serve no more than two terms.

Eligibility challenge

Tucker's lawyers have asked Republican Party of Texas Chair D'rinda Randall to review whether Sheets is eligible.

They argue state law requires an agriculture commissioner to have been engaged in the business of agriculture for five of the last 10 years, or to meet other farm-related requirements, and that Sheets' ranch in Burnet has been owned for four years, through a company rather than by Sheets himself. No decision has been made to remove Sheets from the ballot, the newspaper reported.

Sheets called the challenge a "last-ditch" effort. He in turn questioned Tucker's qualifications, saying Tucker's sworn financial disclosure lists work for a Washington-based advocacy nonprofit and that Tucker has spent the past decade in politics rather than earning a living from farming or ranching.

Miller, who lost the primary, does not appear on the November ballot.

Sources

tdtnews.com

co.grayson.tx.us

co.grayson.tx.us