Texas Democrats Sarah Eckhardt and Clayton Tucker discuss their plans if elected for comptroller and agriculture commissioner

Texas Democrats Sarah Eckhardt and Clayton Tucker won their party's nominations outright during the March 3 primary, Eckhardt for comptroller and Tucker for agriculture commissioner. They both spoke with CBS News Texas political reporter Jack Fink about what they want to accomplish if elected.

Sarah Eckhardt for Comptroller

In the Democratic primary for Texas Comptroller, Sarah Eckhardt took 64 percent of the vote, winning a three-way race outright. She told Jack that a " purple Texas is a healthy Texas."

"One-party rule for three decades is not healthy. Whether it's Republican or Democrat. One-party rule, at the very least, tolerates a level of inefficiency and at the worst, it tolerates a level of abuse and is completely resistant to any kind of accountability. And while (Republican nominee) Don Huffines talks about 'DOGE-ing' and rooting out fraud, waste and abuse, really, he's talking about destroying government, actually, so that it's survival of the richest. It is important that we have a level playing field for all Texans, not just for the wealthiest."

If she were to be elected, Eckhardt said her top priorities would include rebuilding Texas, auditing the voucher program and getting federal funds for Texans.

"My top priorities are to make sure that, we stop one party rule, not because I want to get rid of the Republican Party. I want the Republican Party to be healthy again, frankly," Eckhardt said. "I think that a purple Texas is a healthy Texas, and we can't expect that a Republican comptroller will be able to speak truth to power and actually say, 'listen, we need to rebuild this back, y'all,'" she said.

"The state of Texas and Texans are not getting the repatriation of their own federal tax dollars... We also need to make sure that we end a tremendous transfer of our public dollars into private hands through corporate tax breaks, through no-bid contracts, and now through the voucher scheme."

Republican nominee Don Huffines also won his primary outright, defeating acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock and two other candidates on March 3.

Clayton Tucker for agriculture commissioner

Clayton Tucker, the Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, said his priorities are food, land and water. He told Jack that he wants Texas to slow down when it comes to new data centers.

Tucker is a farmer himself, and said corporate monopolies have taken over Texas, causing in part high food costs.

"It is not the farmers making the money, it's the corporate monopolies in Texas," said Tucker. "The ag commissioner has some abilities to go after these corporate monopolies, which we plan to do."

Tucker emphasized that when it comes to his priority of water, he wants to stop the development of data centers in Texas. He said that he wants to look into the specifics of what the centers are using and producing.

"So ideally I would like a moratorium just to make sure that if they have to come, they're done right," Tucker said. "I really do want to also clarify something about these data centers, the ones they're building on our farmland are not for medical purposes. They're not for military purposes. "The ones that are taking our farmland that are taking our water are nothing. They're not meant to help you, AI. They're not meant to help our country. They're meant to enrich the greedy few."

In November, he will face Republican Nate Sheets, who ousted three-term incumbent Sid Miller in the primary.