Gilbert Files For Agriculture Commission Seat

Touts Experience In Industry, Stopping TTC As Key Points That Will Help Him Beat Friedman, Staples

AUSTIN—Democrat Hank Gilbert made official his decision to run for Texas Agriculture Commissioner on Monday by filing the necessary paperwork with the Texas Democratic Party to become the party’s nominee to eventually face incumbent commissioner Todd Staples.

“When it comes to the Texas Agriculture Commission, there is no one in this race who has the experience that I do in agribusiness who will both run this agency effectively and protect the thousands of small, family farms we have across Texas,” Gilbert said.

“From major nursery cash crop producers and beef cattle operations to massive vegetable processing plants all the way down to the small family farm with 25 head of cattle, I will represent every Texan involved in the agriculture industry, not just the few groups who have enough money to organize a lobby day at the capitol every year,” Gilbert said. “Small and medium sized family farmers and agriculture businesses—whether they grow roses or tomatoes or raise chickens or goats—have been left behind by more than a decade of Republican rule in Texas. Their voices aren’t heard in Austin, but the big factory farmers with their high powered lobbyists are. That changes the day that I become Texas Agriculture Commissioner,” he said.

Gilbert, who will face entertainer Kinky Friedman in the primary and incumbent Todd Staples in the fall, noted that he has already spent the last several years protecting small family farms. “Eminent domain, in the form of the Trans-Texas Corridor threatened to destroy hundreds of thousands of family farms in this state,” Gilbert said. “I formed an organization to kill the TTC, protect those family farms, and those are the kind of results Texans can expect from me,” he said.

In the coming weeks, Gilbert noted that he would be touring the state to vigorously campaign for his party’s nomination, and that the contrast between himself and his opponents would be stark.

“I am deeply involved in agribusiness in Texas, more than anyone in this race. I have the hands-on experience that my opponents lack—and the people of Texas need—in this position,” he concluded.