Texas Ag Commissioner's Race: Get Results Here

AUSTIN, TX — Despite self-inflicted gaffes and missteps in the past months, Sid Miller managed to emerge victorious in his quest to retain his seat as Commissioner of Agriculture.

Late Tuesday, 934,051 votes were cast in the Republican primary, with 34 percent reporting (2,614 of 7,687 precincts). Miller had received 525,519 votes (56.3 percent). His challengers were Jim Hogan, who got 210,661 votes (22.6 percent) and Trey Blocker received 197,871 votes (21.2 percent).

On the Democratic ticket, Kim Olson was uncontested. She'll face Miller in the November general election.

From earlier:

AUSTIN, TX — One of the most interesting races in this year's primaries is the election for Commissioner of Agriculture. The reason it's interesting: Sid Miller.

Two other men — Trey Blocker and Jim Hogan — are Republican challengers trying to unseat Miller as ag commissioner at Tuesday, March 6, election. The contenders could face long odds of unseating Miller given their lack of name recognition, but it may be Miller's own antics and controversial actions that could emerge as his biggest challenge to overcome at the ballot box:

• In 2016, Miller faced calls to return $1,120 in taxpayer money after taking a trip to neighboring Oklahoma where he went presumably on government business to health issues both states share. But after Miller explained why he went to Oklahoma, lawmakers there said they never invited Miller. Later, speculation mounted that Miller's real reason for traveling to Oklahoma was to seek a medical treatment dubbed the "Jesus Shot" that is purported to be a near-miraculous painkiller only available in that state.
• Last year, he touted not a cure but a poison to help curb the feral hog population in Texas, calling the marauding packs of boars — responsible for millions of dollars of damage to crops and property each year — as a "hog apocalypse." His idea to thin the porcine herd was to strategically place canisters filled with "Kaput Feral Hog Lure," to kill them upon ingestion of the poison. But pigs aren't renown for being neat creatures, and some wondered what other innocent, non-targeted creatures might eat any spilled seed and promptly die. Even hunters came to the hogs' defense (sort of) against this method of annihilation since their meat would be contaminated with the poison post-mortem, rendering the meat inedible. A judge later blocked the initiative from taking effect.
• Late last year, Miller posted a story describing Donald Trump's removal of a Muslim federal judge named Hansam al Alallawalahi who was said to be practicing Sharia law. "22nd Circuit Court of Appeals Justice Hansam al Alallawalahi-Smith made headlines this week when he overturned a ruling out of Dearborn, Michigan," the original post read. Miller added his own commentary: "Good on President Trump. Sharia law has no place in the United States of America." Problem is, there is no 22nd Circuit Court of Appeals. What's more, Congress and not the president would be unable to removed a federal judge via impeachment.
• Staring in 2013, the Texas Ethics Commission probed four ethics complaints against Miller filed by an attorney. After a protracted lag time in resolving the matters, the attorney withdrew the complaints even as the commission continued its investigation. In June 2017, the commission resolved a pair of the complaints fining Miller $2,750 for improperly accounting in reporting political contributions and expenditures. Through a spokesman, Miller categorized the investigation as "...nothing more than a politically motivated with hunt" over "very minor technical matters," as detailed in his Wikipedia page.

Miller was first elected agriculture commissioner in 2014, when he secured 58.6 percent of the vote.

On the Democratic side, Kim Olson is the lone candidate running unopposed in the primary election for the Ag Commissioner seat. To read about the candidates, consult the exhaustively detailed League of Women's Voters election guide by clicking here.

See also:

Travis County Early Voting: What You Need To Know

Williamson County Early Voting: What You Need To Know

Related stories:

Texas AG Commissioner Under Fire For Possibly Billing Taxpayers For 'Jesus Shot'

Texas Agriculture Commissioner's Approval Of Poison To End 'Hog Apocalypse' Gains Detractors

Texas Ag Chief Posts Fake News About Trump Busting Up Sharia Law

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