Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller reacts to Gov. Abbott's endorsement of his challenger: "I wasn't surprised."
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller dismissed Gov. Greg Abbott's endorsement of his Republican challenger, Nate Sheets.
"I wasn't surprised," Miller told CBS News Texas. "I think the governor, for the most part, does a good job. But I have a responsibility to agriculture to stand up for him. I had a responsibility to stand up for Republicans. When he added a third week to early voting during COVID, which he didn't have the authority to do, but he did it anyway. I sued him to try to stop him. When he shut the border down to give safety inspections to trucks that already had safety inspections, we lost $3 billion worth of product. We had over 750 Texas trucks stuck in Mexico for a week; couldn't even get across the border. So, I called him out on that. He didn't like to be called out."
Miller was elected in 2014, and he is seeking a fourth term. He received the endorsement of President Trump in 2018 and 2022.
"The one endorsement that counts is the voter, and that's whose endorsement I want," Miller said.
One issue that has come up in the campaign was Miller's decision to hire his campaign consultant, Todd Smith, as his chief of staff after he pleaded guilty to commercial bribery, a felony, for selling hemp licenses that the Department of Agriculture issues. When asked why he did that, Miller defended his decision.
"I did that because it's the best hire I ever made," he said.
Miller blamed politics at the Travis County District Attorney's Office.
"What happened to Todd Smith has happened to numerous Republicans. Keep in mind, this is Travis County, the most liberal DA's office probably in the nation. The DA is funded by George Soros. They've come after me twice. They couldn't even get enough on me to indict me. So, they came after Todd Smith for this very purpose to get headlines for the election, so they could defeat me. It's bankrupt, Todd," Miller said.
"The appeal would have cost him another $400,000. They offered him a sweetheart deal, small fines, and community service. It goes away in three months, won't even be on his record," he continued.
Smith's lawyers said the case will be dismissed after he completes deferred adjudication for two years. Despite the guilty plea, Miller denied Smith did anything wrong.
"He's innocent, totally," he said.
Miller told Eye On Politics his proudest accomplishment while in office revolves around the program he began, Farm Fresh Fridays.
"When I took over, our schools weren't serving any local products. So, I set out to get local healthy food in our schools, and we've done that," Miller said.
He said the school districts work with local farmers to provide meals on Friday.
"It's worked great. It's all volunteer. We don't mandate it. Eighty-one percent of our schools are participating now. Our schools bought $300 million of locally grown food cooked from scratch, served to our children. And guess what, it didn't go in the trash can. Our taxpayers win because the taxpayer dollars aren't going in the garbage can. Our farmers win because now they've got a new market, can get a little bit of a premium," he said.
Early voting begins Tuesday, Feb. 17. Miller said he is looking forward to the March 3 primary.