This year’s Republican primary for Texas agriculture commissioner pits incumbent rodeo cowboy Sid Miller against businessman Nate Sheets.
The founder of Nature Nate’s Honey, Sheets brings knowledge, experience and strong ideas about how to help producers and consumers in our state. We recommend him over Miller, who has made a joke of the office.
Sheets spoke during our interview about the need to make farming more profitable. He also mentioned reducing regulations, though he noted health and safety must always be a consideration when it comes to food.
The Agriculture Department runs a program called GO TEXAN that brands products as Texas-made and also features an online marketplace that lets consumers buy products directly from participating vendors. The idea is to support in-state business.
Opinion
Sheets criticized the program, however, and said he wants a system that more effectively opens market access to producers.
Sheets demonstrated excellent command of many other issues, including a desire for safe, healthful and nutritious food, national security concerns related to the supply chain, consolidation in the agriculture industry and the loss of Texas farmland.
“Rural Texas is being hollowed out as consolidation pushes family producers out and multinational corporations capture more of the food dollar,” Sheets wrote in our Voter Guide.
After so many years under Miller’s leadership, it’s refreshing to see a competent candidate talking about the real issues Texas agriculture faces.
Miller was first elected agriculture commissioner in 2014. His tenure has been marked by the bizarre, the baffling and the downright alarming. His failures and scandals are too numerous to chronicle here, but that won’t stop us from trying.
Last year, Miller hired as his chief of staff someone who pleaded guilty to bribery. When the Texas cattle industry was threatened by a parasitic pest, Miller botched the response and earned a rebuke from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, The Texas Tribune reported.
And all that’s to say nothing of the bewildering tales The Tribune reported on involving Miller, marijuana and enough drama and intrigue to fill either a comedy or tragedy about Texas politics.
Miller, who spends much of his day posting to social media, is running in a party that tends to reject members who aren’t sufficiently loyal, but that isn’t a problem for this cowboy. No, he’s actually so incompetent that even today’s GOP won’t tolerate him anymore. Gov. Greg Abbott has endorsed Sheets.
We recently interviewed a group of Texas farmers and ranchers. When we mentioned the agriculture commissioner — not Miller by name, just his office — they busted out laughing. That’s how much of a joke this man is.
Miller appears more concerned with slopping memes, many of them offensive, on social media than with doing his actual job. Plus, there’s his persistent and public, uh, interest, in actor Sydney Sweeney.
Agriculture is too important to let Miller’s clown show continue. We believe Sheets can return competency and professionalism here. We strongly encourage voters to choose him in this primary.
This editorial is part of the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board’s slate of recommendations for the 2026 primary. Find the full project here.
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