Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller suggested that he would campaign against moderate Republicans in the 2024 election cycle at an event in Plano on Saturday.
Miller, who has been agriculture commissioner since 2014, is one of the most popular politicians in Texas. He received more votes than any other Republican candidate in the state in 2022, beating out Gov. Greg Abbott by more than 40,000 votes. Miller got 4,480,186 votes in his race. Abbott defeated Robert “Beto” O’Rourke with 4,437,099 votes.
The commissioner has been a vocal critic of Republicans in the Texas Legislature who have allegedly undermined key party priorities like beefing up border security, shoring up the energy grid, and enhancing election integrity.
During the 2023 Labor Day Picnic hosted by the Collin County Republican Party, Miller suggested he might weigh in on individual races come primary season.
“You know yesterday was the opening of dove [hunting] season, but you know what other season is open?” Miller asked the crowd.
“RINO season,” said Miller, using the acronym for “Republican in Name Only,” a pejorative used against members of the GOP who have more left-leaning voting records than the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
“I’ll go hunting, and I hope some of y’all go with me because I’m getting tired of these guys,” Miller continued. “I’m going to take them out, I’ve had it!”
He went on to raise criticisms over the last regular legislative session.
“We still haven’t fixed the electric grid. … We haven’t fixed our elections,” Miller claimed, adding that state lawmakers “didn’t do anything” to resolve the crisis at the southern border aside from throwing “some more money at it.”
Miller, a longtime rancher himself, also called attention to his efforts to prevent federal regulations from affecting Texas agriculture.
“Under [the Biden] administration, I spend about 40-50% of my time fighting back against the federal government,” he told the cheering crowd. “We’ve filed several lawsuits.”
He recalled a suit he filed to stop a Biden administration program that reserved some COVID-19 pandemic relief for “socially disadvantaged” farmers and ranchers. The suit alleged the program would discriminate against whites. Leading the class action suit in a private capacity because he “didn’t want to use taxpayer dollars,” Miller stopped the program, which he denounced as “racist.”
He also brought up the Biden administration’s attempt to tie federal funding of school lunches to pro-LGBTQ policies.
“I said in Texas, we’re not doing that,” said Miller, noting that he sued in his capacity as commissioner on that occasion. “I’ll you what, I got a really good lawyer. I think you know his name, Ken Paxton.”
Paxton, who is about to go on trial before the Texas Senate, was in attendance and spoke later at the event, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Miller also shared stories about his time in office, telling an anecdote about how he helped get more toilet paper sold in Texas during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The crowd appeared to enjoy the yarn.
“I’ll tell you, I got the coolest job,” Miller said. “It’s a fun job.”