Candidates jump into Texas comptroller race 18 months before election
Glenn Hegar, the current Texas comptroller will step down in the coming months because he will assume the position of chancellor of Texas A&M University System.
Earlier this month, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents voted unanimously to make Hegar the sole finalist for the position.
"The Board is confident that Glenn Hegar is ready to usher in the next era of excellence at The Texas A&M University System," said Bill Mahomes, chairman of the Board of Regents. "Hegar grasps the unique breadth and depth of the System's impact on every corner of Texas through its eight state agencies and 11 universities. We, as members of the Board of Regents, are eager to see what he will accomplish."
Hegar will replace outcoung Chancellor John Sharp, who has been in the role for 14 years.
Hegar received his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M in 1993 before becoming a lawyer. He represented the Houston area in the Texas House and Senate before being elected as state comptroller in 2014 and reelected in 2018 and 2022.
"The Texas A&M University System will remain focused on our core values, increasing and improving student experiences, and expanding economic opportunities and services across our system and our state. Leadership matters, and I embrace this duty with deep commitment and respect," Hegar said in a statement after the announcement.
It is not yet clear when Hegar will officially step down from his post to begin his new job at Texas A&M. When he does, Gov. Greg Abbott will appoint someone to fill the rest of the comptroller's term.
Soon after the university's announcement, two people active in state Republican politics announced they will run for Texas comptroller in 2026.
Christi Craddick, the incumbent
chair
of the Texas Railroad Commission, announced her candidacy, touting her experience on the commission as an asset.
"Throughout my tenure at the Commission, we have managed our work with efficiency, transparency, and common sense, reflecting the bedrock principles the Texas economy has been built upon, and our commitment to the principles of a free market have helped our economy thrive. At the heart of all good government, good business and fiscal responsibility is one simple fact: Don't spend money you don't have," Craddick said in a statement.
Don Huffines, a businessman and former Republican state senator, also announced a run and pledged to spend $10 million on his campaign.
Huffines said he will bring DOGE to Texas, referring to Elon Musk's effort to slash the federal workforce and government spending.
"The state of Texas spends more than $450 million a day, seven days a week. Right no, wasteful spending runs unchecked—Texans deserve a watchdog, not a rubber stamp," Huffines said in a statement.
Huffines served in the state Senate from 2015-2019, representing a district in northern Dallas County. He
unsuccessfully challenged
Gov. Abbott in the
Republican primary
for governor in 2022.
The comptroller, officially the Comptroller of Public Accounts, is the state's chief financial officer.
The agency collects taxes and fees owed to the state, pays the state's bills and awards contracts on behalf of state agencies. In addition, the office issues reports on the state of the economy, provides guidance on tax laws and administers programs like the Texas College Savings Plan, according to its
website
.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
26 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's praise for Sweeney ad sends American Eagle stock surging
American Eagle Outfitters saw its stock price surge more than 20% on Monday, after President Trump praised the retailer's controversial marketing campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney on his Truth Social platform. 'Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the 'HOTTEST' ad out there. It's for American Eagle, and the jeans are 'flying off the shelves.' Go get 'em Sydney!' Trump wrote Monday morning, sparking the rally in shares that began after markets opened. The president's endorsement comes amid a firestorm of criticism over the campaign. The controversy centers on a promotional video featuring Sweeney that was posted to American Eagle's social media channels. The video has since been removed. In the teaser, the 'Euphoria' actress discusses hereditary traits in a sultry voice, stating: 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.' As she speaks, the video shows Sweeney zipping up her jeans before the camera pans up her body and focuses on her face and blue eyes, framed by blonde hair. The visual emphasis on Sweeney's features prompted backlash from critics on the internet who were quick to accuse the ad of promoting eugenics and aligning with white nationalist messaging. Pittsburgh-based American Eagle defended the campaign in a statement it posted to Instagram last Friday, saying it 'is and always was about the jeans.' Trump used the opportunity to criticize what he called 'woke' advertising, citing examples like Jaguar's recent rebrand and Bud Light's partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023. 'The market cap destruction has been unprecedented, with BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SO FOOLISHLY LOST,' he wrote, contrasting those campaigns with American Eagle's approach. The stock surge represents the latest chapter in what has become a meme-driven rally for American Eagle, which initially jumped last month when retail traders piled into the stock following the campaign's debut. American Eagle has faced significant financial challenges in recent months. In May, the retailer withdrew its full-year guidance and announced a $75-million write-off of spring and summer merchandise due to slow sales, steep discounting and difficult market conditions. The company reported a first-quarter net revenue of $1.1 billion, down 5% from the prior year, with comparable sales falling 3%. Several prominent Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance and Sen. Ted Cruz, have also defended Sweeney and the campaign against criticism. The actress herself has not publicly addressed the controversy surrounding the advertisements. American Eagle shares closed at $13.28 on Monday, up 24%.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Don't whine about federal budget cuts, lefties — put your money where your mouths are
Before politics overwhelmed the word, the primary meaning of 'liberal' was 'generous.' President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have given political liberals a chance to take that meaning back — by opening their wallets to show just how much they value NPR, PBS and other programs defunded by the GOP. There's no shortage of funds on the left. Laurene Powell Jobs, the mega-rich backer of The Atlantic, has a net worth estimated at above $11 billion a year ago and believed to be even higher today. George Soros, at 94, has a fortune in the vicinity of $7 billion, with billions more in his Open Society Foundation. Bill Gates has about $115 billion, his ex-wife Melinda around $30 billion. Any one of these left-leaning billionaires could single-handedly make up the $535 million that NPR, PBS and local stations were getting annually from taxpayers before Congress zeroed out the subsidies. If half a billion a year is too much for one zillionaire, a half-dozen of them — or more — could share the burden without feeling a pinch. But are wealthy liberals willing to put their money where their mouths are? Citing Michal Heiplik, president of the public-media analytics organization Contributor Development Partnership, The New York Times reports PBS and NPR have reaped a windfall from small-dollar donors in recent months, with 120,000 new supporters stepping up to give some $20 million. Overall, donations are running $70 million above last year. And what works for PBS and NPR will work for humanitarian programs formerly funded as part of USAID as well, though the cuts to be made up there are bigger: Congress has eliminated about $8 billion in funding for USAID and other foreign-aid efforts, according to the Cato Institute. That's a lot of money — but not a dime of it has disappeared. After all, where does government get its money in the first place? Washington could only give to foreign aid or nonprofit broadcasting what it took — or borrowed — from the American people in the first place. When government doesn't spend money, society doesn't lose any of its resources: They just stay with the taxpayers, and the middlemen in government don't get their cut. That, for liberals, is a big part of the problem. The Democratic Party depends on shunting everyone's tax (or debt) dollars into the hands of bureaucrats, one of the party's most loyal constituencies. It's not just NPR and PBS that have been publicly financed — it's also liberalism as a movement. Bureaucrats in government, in government-supported nonprofits and other less-than-fully-private parts of the 'private sector' may work for organizations that are officially nonpartisan, but their campaign-giving heavily favors Democrats. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! Their employers may be nonpartisan in theory, but the employees have a strong partisan tilt, and personnel is policy: Any organization is only a collection of people. USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting were both born in the Kennedy-Johnson years, at mid-century liberalism's zenith. Liberalism had been dominant for so long — starting with the New Deal and Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration — that liberal intellectuals and policymakers came to think of themselves as more than just one side of American politics. They claimed to speak for everyone, as if a single party could define what it meant to be nonpartisan. But even then, the conservative movement was taking off while the Democrats were being dragged to the left by young radicals who wanted 'acid, amnesty and abortion.' Start your day with all you need to know Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters The agencies and programs the Republican Congress has defunded were never as neutral as they claimed to be. And as liberals, under the influence of the left, adopted a more adversarial attitude toward America's past and present, it only became more obvious that the agencies and public-private partnerships they ran represented only one side of any argument. But this doesn't mean liberals can't continue to fund everything they funded before. Now they just have to do it with their own money. Some centrist liberals rightly see that as an opportunity, not an imposition: When I told a friend at a government-supported think tank I was sorry for the professional upheaval he was going though, he noted that his institution had in fact been coasting by ever since the end of the Cold War. He said it needed a renewed sense of mission, and having to raise private funds would give it the impetus it had been lacking for decades. Republicans aren't worried NPR or PBS will move further left if they court progressive billionaires, considering what little presence conservatives had on those networks already. But if they're smart, the broadcasters will see the loss of government funding as a spur to court a wider spectrum of support — and to put to the test what it means to be nonpartisan. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review and editor-at-large of The American Conservative.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
American Eagle stock rises after Trump praises Sydney Sweeney ad amid backlash
Clothing brand American Eagle may be entrenched in controversy over its latest ad campaign, but company shares were only rising on Monday, Aug. 4. The retailer's stock rose more than 23% after President Donald Trump defended its ad starring Sydney Sweeney. Critics have argued that the campaign, which launched on July 23, as well as its slogan "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans," was a double entendre endorsing eugenics, the pseudoscience that promotes the belief that some genetic features are better than others. After a reporter informed Trump that Sweeney was allegedly registered as a Republican in Florida, the president applauded the "Euphoria" star's campaign. BuzzFeed first reported Sweeney's party affiliation on Aug. 2, though USA TODAY was unable to verify whether a person in public voting records named Sydney B. Sweeney is the Emmy-nominated actor, whose middle name is Bernice. "Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the 'HOTTEST' ad out there. It's for American Eagle, and the jeans are 'flying off the shelves.' Go get 'em Sydney!" Trump wrote on an Aug. 4 Truth Social post. "Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Despite an initial 16% boost upon the ad's release, American Eagle shares were down over the past week as backlash escalated, according to reporting from Reuters and CNBC. However, following Trump's praise, the stock saw a 23.53% increase at the market's close on Aug. 4. What have JD Vance, Americans Eagle and Sweeney said? Vice President JD Vance addressed the ad during a Friday, Aug. 1 episode of the conservative "Ruthless" podcast, where he poked fun at outrage toward the ad, quipping, "I actually thought that one of the lessons (Democrats) might take is 'we're going to be less crazy.'" "And the lesson they have apparently taken is 'we're going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful,'" he said on the podcast. "My political advice to the Democrats is continue to (call) everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi." Some critics have argued that the ad promotes the idea of a conventionally attractive, blonde, white woman with blue eyes being the archetype of "good genes." While Sweeney has not publicly addressed the backlash against the ad, American Eagle issued a statement on Instagram on Aug. 1. "'Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans' is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We'll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way," the statement read. "Great jeans look good on everyone." Contributing: Anna Kaufman and Jay Stahl, USA TODAY
