Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has been accused of improperly spending over $6,000 in state resources to prop up his re-election campaign.
According to The San Antonio Express-News, Nate Sheets, a Republican challenging Miller in the primary, “asked the state attorney general’s office to look into a series of social media advertisements that the Department of Agriculture paid to launch on Feb. 3, two weeks before the start of early voting. The ads, which have run on Facebook and Instagram, all begin with the slogan ‘TDA is in…’ and prominently feature Miller’s name or likeness.”
Texas law bans officeholders from using state resources on their political campaigns.
One of the Facebook ads in question was captioned, “Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller grew up on a Texas farm. Today, he works hard every day, not just supporting our farmers, but also our fishermen and the entire seafood industry through our Texas Gulf Seafood program.” Per the report, “Below the text is an image of Miller framed by a dock at sunset, and the slogan ‘TDA is in the Gulf.’”
Sheets, a businessman and self-described “Trump Conservative” endorsed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, put out a news release saying, “Sid Miller couldn’t raise the money to run a real campaign, so Texas taxpayers are now footing the bill. Every Texan has effectively been made a donor to his re-election. That’s an abuse of public trust.” A spokesperson for the governor responded to requests simply by saying Miller has a “history of corruption.”
This is not the first time Miller has been accused of misappropriating public funds for personal benefit. In 2016, he came under scrutiny by the Texas Rangers for a taxpayer-funded flight to Oklahoma, during which he received an unproven $300 chronic pain injection known as the “Jesus shot.”
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