Texas Republicans Don Huffines and Nate Sheets won their party’s nominations outright during the March 3 primary. Huffines for Comptroller, and Sheets for Agriculture Commissioner. 

Don Huffines for Comptroller

In the Republican primary for Texas Comptroller, former State Senator Don Huffines of Dallas won out-right, defeating acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock.

Huffines spoke about his victory in an interview with Jack Fink following the election. “This was an epic win,” said Huffines. 

“You know, I’ve been traveling all over the state for many years, listening to Republicans and what they want. And we delivered on the message of DOGE-ing Texas and rooting out fraud and waste and abuse, and the message really resonates. And of course, I have the receipts to be able to do that. That’s why I was endorsed by so many organizations.”

Huffines discussed how endorsements by Senator Ted Cruz and President Trump had an impact on his campaign.

“Of course, the president is the leader of the Republican Party and our great country, and to have his support is huge, huge. And Ted Cruz is the best Republican U.S. Senator we’ve ever sent to Washington. So those endorsements and so many more were a big part of this great victory, and I’m… very excited to have those.”

One of the candidates that Huffines ran against in the primary, Hancock, is the acting comptroller who was appointed by Governor Abbott and endorsed by Governor Abbott. Following his victory, Huffines said he had a phone call with Governor Abbott.

“We talked about how the Republican Party is gonna be united, we’re going to get together,” said Huffines. “We are drilling down right now, even as we speak, to focus on the Fall to beat the Democrats, to deliver on the message of what Republicans are about. And we also talked with the governor about his legislative priorities, what he would like to see happen next session, and a few other things. So we had a good discussion.”

When asked if the governor was on board with DOGE, Huffines’ efforts to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, he said he believes his messaging is why he won. 

“I think all Republicans are. That’s why I won,” said Huffines. “It’s like the stuff in our garages, you know, that’s the analogy I use, you know, the garage just fills up with stuff, we don’t like cleaning it out, but we sure like pulling in when it’s done, and that’s what I’m gonna do in the comptroller’s office. We’ll just clean out the garage.”

He will face Democratic State Senator Sarah Eckhardt of Austin in November. 

Nate Sheets for Agriculture Commissioner

In the Republican primary for Texas agriculture commissioner, Nate Sheets ousted three-term incumbent Sid Miller. Sheets won the endorsement from Governor Greg Abbott in January, while Miller received an endorsement from President Trump just over one week ago. 

Sheets spoke about his victory in an interview with Jack Fink following the election. He told Jack, “We had a great team of volunteers, we had a great team of leaders, but we had a great team of people that really got behind the campaign, like our great governor, Governor Greg Abbott, as well as Don Buckingham, the Land Commissioner, Texas Farm Bureau, Southwest Texas Cattle Fund. feeders and the cattle raisers and, you know, all of these ag groups, and everybody combined, it took everybody to really be able to have the success that we’ve had yesterday.”

Jack asked Sheets if he had any concerns after President Trump endorsed Miller. 

“I think if President Trump had endorsed a month earlier, that would have been very troublesome, and could have given him a lot of time to be able to really promote that,” said Sheets. “But, you know, that came out late Friday evening. 2 a.m., we attacked Iran, which really kind of brought the news cycle to a focus on that. And then he also didn’t have any money to really get it out there. Any money that he had raised he was using to malign me and didn’t really save his dollars to go promote that.”

Sheets said his message to voters in the November election is all about Texas food. 

“We continue to lose agriculture as never before,” said Sheets. “The way that we have become reliant upon our adversarial countries to be involved in the way we feed ourselves in America, as well as our pursuit for cheap calories in America through ultra-processed foods, has had a hugely negative impact… This campaign, what we’re going to do in November, is about bringing a focus on the new food triangle; everything on that comes right off the farm, and so it’s the golden age of agriculture in front of us. And so, as we start to clean up food. to provide healthier, more nutritious food for Americans and help to connect them with the farmers and bring those two closer together, it’s going to begin to help focus on both of those needs, so we want to grow food better and grow better food.”

He will face Democrat Clayton Tucker in November. 

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