When Grayson County's early voting opens Monday, the ballot will include a statewide office that touches public school money, veterans' loans, disaster aid and the Alamo: Texas land commissioner.
Three names are listed for Commissioner of the General Land Office on the county's sample ballot: incumbent Republican Dawn Buckingham, Democrat Benjamin Flores and Libertarian Neill Snider.
What the office does
The General Land Office oversees roughly 13 million acres owned by the state, including coastline and submerged land reaching more than 10 miles into the Gulf, according to a Texas Tribune candidate guide.
Revenue from selling or leasing part of that acreage flows to the Permanent School Fund, which the Tribune says holds more than $57 billion in assets and sends more than $2.4 billion a year to K-12 schools. The agency also runs the Veterans Land Board's land and home loan programs, distributes disaster recovery money, manages state mineral leases and operates the Alamo.
Commissioners are elected to four-year terms.
The candidates
Dawn Buckingham, the Republican incumbent, is a surgeon and former state senator who in 2022 became the first woman elected to lead the office. Her campaign website credits the agency under her leadership with close to $6 billion for public schools and more than $9 billion for disaster recovery. She has said the office will study putting geothermal, natural gas and small nuclear power projects on state property, and she launched an effort committing agency resources to immigration enforcement. She also ordered federal contractors to stop clearing a state-owned border tract after Presidio leaders sued and raised concerns about damage to Big Bend, which the Tribune described as an unusual split from the Trump administration. Her endorsements include President Donald Trump, House Speaker Dustin Burrows and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association's PAC. Her campaign had about $3.2 million at the end of June.
Benjamin Flores, the Democrat, was elected to the Bay City council in 2023, raises heritage-breed pigs and spent three decades in cybersecurity and compliance jobs protecting county government, according to the Tribune. He opposes school vouchers and says he would focus on protecting revenue for the Permanent School Fund. He has proposed land swaps to encourage affordable housing, a ready list of screened Texas contractors to speed disaster recovery, and leasing state land to data center developers. He switched to this race from the governor's contest, the Tribune reports, because he objects to how the agency's resources have been used for border and immigration enforcement. His endorsements include the Texas AFL-CIO and the Sierra Club's Texas political committee. His campaign had $3,001 at the end of June.
