Where candidates for Texas agriculture commissioner stand on marijuana, trade with Mexico

Sid Miller

Political Party: Republican

Did not respond

Susan Hays

Political party: Democratic

Age as of November 8, 2022: 54

Campaign website: hays4ag.com

Occupation: Attorney

Education: UT-Austin, B.A. Humanities (1992); Georgetown Univ. Law Center, J.D. (1996)

Have you run for elected office before? (Please list previous offices sought)

Dallas County Democratic Chair (2002)

Please list highlights of your civic involvement:

Member, International Cannabis Bar Association

Co-founder, former Legal Director, and Legal Advisory Board Member, Jane’s Due Process, Inc.

Equality Texas Foundation, Board Member (2019)

Beto O’Rourke for Senate/Texas Democratic Party, Voter Protection Project (2018)

Board Member, Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, Advisory Board

Committee for a Qualified Judiciary, Dallas, Texas (2005-2012)

Who are your top three campaign contributors?

Erin Fonté, Village Farms LP, Annie’s List and Don Henley (tied)

What is the most important distinction between you and your opponent(s)?

Ethics, and I’ll do the work. I’m not here to enact some partisan agenda or pick petty fights. My opponent, Sid Miller, is a pariah in his own party. The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature is far more likely to trust me than Sid. I can work with anyone by bringing honesty and competency to the table – skills that earned the endorsement of three former Texas Supreme Court Justices who all served as Republicans.

My opponent has been a smorgasbord of scandal since he took office such as using a state plane to fly to personal errands like getting a “Jesus shot” for his bad back. You can see a summary of his many ethical shortcomings at https://www.hays4ag.com/sids-sins/. I also understand how to get things done in government. The Ag Commissioner must have good relationships with the Legislature and the federal government to gather resources for programs such as school lunches, Meals-on-Wheels, and the State Office of Rural Health.

What are the three biggest issues in this race?

1. Corruption and the scandal surrounding Sid Miller, such as his political consultant getting indicted for trying to sell $100 hemp licenses for tens of thousands of dollars.

2. Rural health care and economic development, including increasing support for rural hospitals

3. Legalizing cannabis – in smart, measured, and robust way, that gets it right – unlike Oklahoma or California.

How would you approach trade with Mexico as agricultural commissioner?

Primero, hablo español. Entonces, by building partnerships, particularly on the ground along the border. Where Texas once enjoyed an elastic labor force given the seasonal help from Mexican workers, now we are importing food from Mexico, rather than growing it ourselves, with farmers on the border turning to the import business. This shift has been exacerbated by the refusal to recognize Texas’s need for immigrant labor whether in the ag sector or other areas of the economy. As Ag Commissioner I will work to identify infrastructure chokepoints and the resources to address them so that Texas ag producers can find markets in Mexico rather than lose out due to the labor market imbalance and worsening our trade deficit.

Should Texas loosen its marijuana laws? Would you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational and/or medical use? As agriculture commissioner, were marijuana legalized, what would be your role in the oversight of its production given its a crop and how would you approach that task?

Yes, we should reform the laws including legalizing both medical and recreational use, where my opponent only wants to expand medical cannabis. If we just decriminalize without legalizing (that is, regulating) then you open the door to the black market. As a cannabis lawyer I have studied the laws in other states and how they get it right or wrong. I would work with the Texas Legislature to craft robust laws to provide safeguards for public health and safety while also offering economic opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs. You can read my detailed critique of current Texas law and roadmap for reform at https://www.hays4ag.com/cannabis/.

The Ag Commission should regulate cannabis cultivation given the department’s expertise in pesticide regulation. To summarize the details posted on my website, I’d approach regulation by focusing on public health and safety while maximizing the business opportunities for Texans.

How will you work to make sure children, regardless of economic status, have access to healthy school lunches?

One of the first things Sid did in office was to “pardon” cupcakes and other high-sugar, fatty foods as a joke – and then bring them back into school cafeterias. I will work to create incentives for school districts to get their food locally sourced, and provide healthy options for kids, and get kids interested in agriculture. We need to make sure that Texas kids learn how agriculture works, where their food comes from, and how it’s made – and show those in urban and suburban areas that growing food is for city kids too. Kids should be fed regardless of economic status. Hungry kids can’t focus and thus can’t learn. Helping them become productive members of society begins with a good meal.

What’s something most voters probably don’t know about the Texas Department of Agriculture you think they should?

That the State Office of Rural Health is at TDA, along with rural economic development efforts. Both offices are underutilized by the incumbent. In fact, he wanted to cut funding to rural hospitals and Meals on Wheels during the pandemic.

As agriculture commissioner, how would you promote transparency in the Texas Department of Agriculture?

By setting an ethical example with my leadership first and foremost. Compared to the incumbent, that’s quite a low bar but I plan to exceed it 100-fold. If elected, I will pour sunlight on the operations of the Ag Commission, starting with simple things like clear information on the website about who to call if you have an issue with a particular program and expanding to self-reports on how funds are allocated and distributed and what measurable returns we get for that investment.