{"id":184336,"date":"2026-02-28T09:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T09:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/184336\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T09:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T09:25:12","slug":"trump-backs-sid-miller-and-don-huffines-in-texas-gop-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/184336\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump backs Sid Miller and Don Huffines in Texas GOP primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump endorsed Don Huffines and Sid Miller in their respective Republican primaries for Texas comptroller and agriculture commissioner, a last-minute boost for the candidates that directly opposes Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>\u2019s picks in the races.<\/p>\n

In two similarly-worded Truth Social<\/a> posts<\/a> on Friday night after his appearance at an event in Corpus Christi, Trump praised Huffines, a former state senator, and Miller, the incumbent agriculture commissioner, with \u201ccomplete and total endorsement[s].\u201d The posts emphasized both candidates\u2019 dedication to border security, veterans and the second amendment. <\/p>\n

The endorsements could add even more pressure to Abbott\u2019s<\/a> chosen candidates, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock<\/a> and first-time political candidate Nate Sheets, both of whom have polled behind Huffines and Miller. Abbott\u2019s interest in the comptroller primary, in particular, extends beyond an endorsement, as the position is responsible for implementing the $1 billion school voucher program that he aggressively sought for years. <\/p>\n

Hancock, a longtime ally of Abbott\u2019s, has seen $2.6 million of the governor\u2019s massive campaign war chest go toward ads in support of his candidacy, according to the latest campaign finance report. Abbott has also praised<\/a> Hancock\u2019s leadership amid the rollout of the voucher program. Hancock resigned<\/a> from his state Senate seat in July to take on the comptroller role after his predecessor, Glenn Hegar, went on to become chancellor<\/a> of the Texas A&M University System.<\/p>\n

Huffines, who ran against<\/a> Abbott in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, has proven to be a formidable opponent for Hancock. The former state senator has garnered several other high-profile endorsements, including Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a> and the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

The governor also endorsed<\/a> Sheets, an agriculture businessman, in the GOP primary for agriculture commissioner. His endorsement of Miller\u2019s opponent is a rare move against an incumbent and Trump ally. Abbott has described Miller\u2019s tenure, which has been marked by scandal<\/a>, as an \u201cutter failure<\/a>\u201d <\/p>\n

Abbott has brought both Hancock and Sheets on the campaign trail promoting the candidates. Despite Abbott\u2019s backing, Miller and Huffines have both polled with comfortable leads<\/a> ahead of Sheets and Hancock respectively.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Texas A&M University System and Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66187,145,288,392,2879,27,2794,29,28,6748],"class_list":{"0":"post-184336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-don-huffines","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-greg-abbott","12":"tag-sid-miller","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-comptroller-of-public-accounts","15":"tag-texas-headlines","16":"tag-texas-news","17":"tag-well-b-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}