The race for Texas agriculture commissioner is smokin’ — perhaps not by any standard political science metric as Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide workplace in three a long time — however definitely by a measure that school college students, individuals with extreme again ache, and maybe Willie Nelson himself can perceive.
“I have no fear of saying ‘Hell, yeah, I consume cannabis.’ I have no problem saying that publicly,” Democratic candidate Susan Hays
instructed
the Chronicle not too long ago.
Hays, 53, lives in Alpine, the place she and her husband bought land a number of years in the past to develop hemp and hops. Her background is as an lawyer and lobbyist, together with her 2019 work
serving to craft the Texas legislation
permitting any hemp product with lower than 0.3 p.c THC.
Like the Republican incumbent, Sid Miller, she has made medical marijuana legalization central to her marketing campaign.
Hays mentioned she’s taken an in depth take a look at different states’ hashish insurance policies and decided that the profitable ones have a well-balanced “three-legged stool” of medicinal entry, decriminalization and legalization, all working collectively to curb the black market and guarantee individuals stay secure.
In January, the Texas Rangers and the Travis County district lawyer
received an indictment
alleging that Miller’s former political advisor Todd Smith sought $150,000 in change for licenses to develop hemp from the agriculture division (Texas hemp licenses are $100).
Somehow, Miller bested his two Republican major opponents who made his questionable selections and affiliations the central focus of their campaigns.
Hays guarantees to guide the division with integrity, and we predict she presents Texans with a greater shot at competent management than we ever had underneath Miller. If elected, she instructed us, her constituents “won’t have to worry if I’m off seeking pseudo medical treatment in another state or directing a staffer to commit unsavory acts for a quick buck.”
She vows to control pragmatically, not politically, sticking to her duties as agriculture commissioner quite than partisan speaking factors: “That’s not just abortion and guns — it’s the freeze, it’s seeing the elected officials spend taxpayer dollars and money and media space on often made-up issues, issues based in fear, instead of actually governing,” Hays mentioned.
She seeks to revitalize the State Office of Rural Health, a rural hospital program, and commit the division’s assets to bettering rural well being care, sorely wanted in Texas. The agriculture division oversees the state’s college lunch program, and Hays seeks to ensure college students — rural, suburban and concrete — are getting wholesome Texas meals quite than processed meals from elsewhere.
If you want a circus act that sucks up oxygen and taxpayer cash, vote for Miller. If you need a critical candidate nicely certified to run the Texas agriculture division pretty, effectively, and truthfully, we will’t advocate Hays extremely sufficient.
