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Editor’s note: To help readers learn more about the candidates running for statewide seats, The Texas Tribune is sharing information about the Republican, Democratic and third-party candidates. For more information on midterms and the voting process, check out our election resources here.

About this seat: The Texas General Land Office, referred to as the GLO, is the oldest state agency. Established in 1836 at the dawn of the Republic of Texas, the GLO was primarily in charge of collecting and keeping records, providing maps and surveys, issuing titles and managing the settlement of state lands.

Today, the agency manages 13 million acres of state land, which includes 3,400 miles of coastline and tidelands that extend over 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. The proceeds from the sale or lease of some of that land is used to help fund public schools through its Permanent School Fund, which comprises over $57 billion in assets and distributes over $2.4 billion annually to Texas K-12 schools. The GLO is also in charge of administering aid after natural disasters and manages the Veterans Land Board, which offers land loans for up to $150,000 and home loans for up to $766,550 to veterans. The GLO also manages and leases mineral rights in the state and operates the Alamo.

The agency is led by an elected commissioner who serves a four-year term. The current land commissioner is Dawn Buckingham.

What’s at stake: The land commissioner’s office controls billions of dollars in disaster relief and determines who gets help, how public schools are funded, how Texas tells its own history and how veteran services are managed. Before Buckingham was elected, the agency faced accusations that it shortchanged communities of color in Houston when it distributed disaster relief after Hurricane Harvey. These claims fueled a yearslong federal investigation that found such claims true, but most recently reversed those earlier findings and formally closed the case calling earlier discrimination findings flawed. The office became a cultural flashpoint last year when commissioner Buckingham criticized an Indigenous People’s Day social media post from an Alamo Trust account as “woke.” Following the post, an investigation was launched and the CEO was forced out.

Buckingham was unopposed in the Republican primary. Democratic nominee Benjamin Flores initially had sought to run for governor in the Democratic primary but dropped out and beat out veteran and labor leader Jose Loya during the party’s primary for land commissioner.

Candidates at a glance:

Texas General Land Office
Campaign site

Dawn Buckingham

Republican, incumbent

💰 Campaign finance:

  • Cash on hand as of June 30: $3,216,157
  • Raised betweenJan. 1-June 30: $646,865

💰 Major donors this year:

  • Ron Amini, managing director at Sage Energy Company — $100,000
  • Tom Martine, president at Martine Properties Inc. — $50,000
  • Michael Porter, owner of Cross Creek Ranch in Doss, Texas — $50,000
  • Gary Martin, president of Falcon Bay Energy – $41,400 (in-kind private transportation donations)
  • Texas Sands PAC, prominent group funded by casino giant Las Vegas Sands and billionaire Miriam Adelson – $15,000

Experience:

  • Trained as a surgeon specializing in cosmetic and functional eyelid reconstruction
  • Earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
  • In 2016, became first Republican elected to the Texas State Senate from Travis County and the first woman to represent Senate District 24, representing parts of Central Texas including Kerrville and Lakeway
  • In 2022, Buckingham won the statewide election for the land commissioner, making her the first woman to lead the land office
  • Ninth-generation Texan from a family among the state’s earliest settlers.

Political ideology: Buckingham has a reliably conservative record, maintaining an anti-abortion stance, supporting the Second Amendment, and championing Texas’s oil and gas industry as essential to economic independence. She promotes a low-tax, pro-business economy and limited government principles that align with mainstream Texas conservatism. As a conservative, she has emphasized protecting Texas heritage through the Texas General Land Office, including rejecting what she describes as “woke” reinterpretations of the Alamo. Buckingham also supports strong border enforcement and state cooperation on immigration control. During her GLO campaign in 2021, she described herself in Facebook ads as a “staunch defender of the Trump agenda.”

Policy stances:

  • Announced the GLO’s office will explore developing geothermal energy, small modular nuclear reactors and natural gas plants on state lands
  • Assisted with border wall construction and launched the Jocelyn Initiative, committing all available GLO resources to assist in detaining and deporting “criminal illegal immigrants”
  • In a rare break with the Trump administration, Buckingham ordered federal contractors to stop “illegally” clearing a state border tract, following a lawsuit from Presidio leaders and concerns of damage to Big Bend
  • Protect Texas’s energy dominance, recognizing oil and gas as critical to both economic strength and national security
  • Buckingham’s campaign website says the GLO has contributed nearly $6 billion to public education and delivered more than $1.5 billion to help veterans purchase, renovate, or improve homes and property during her tenure
  • During her tenure, Buckingham’s campaign website says the GLO has delivered over $9 billion in disaster recovery funding statewide, plus an additional $1 billion for flood mitigation projects
  • Buckingham has called herself a passionate steward of the Alamo, overseeing critical restoration efforts to preserve the site. She’s pushed back against recognizing Indigenous communities and their history at the Alamo

In the news:

Endorsements:

  • President Donald Trump
  • Wayne Christian and Jim Wright, Texas Railroad Commissioners
  • 11 state senators including Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, and Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound
  • House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and 41 other state representatives
  • National Border Patrol Council (NBPC)
  • Industry political groups, including Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA PAC)
, Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) and Texas Public Charter Schools Association


How to contact:

Use the contact form on the campaign website

Campaign photo
Campaign site

Benjamin Flores

Democrat

💰 Campaign finance:

  • Cash on hand as of June 30: $3,001
  • Raised between Jan. 1-June 30: $3,604

💰 Major donors this year:

  • Bill Naso, Strategic Messages — $2,500, in-kind donation
  • Domingo Garcia, attorney at Law Offices of Domingo Garcia — $1,000
  • Liberal Austin Democrats — $500

Experience:

  • 30 years of experience in cybersecurity and compliance protecting county government from fraud and systemic errors
  • Born in Mexico and came to the U.S. in 1996, living in California where he had hands-on disaster response experience as a former Community Emergency Response Team member.
  • In 2016, Flores moved with his family from Austin to Bay City where he started a 10-acre family business raising heritage-breed pigs
  • Elected to Bay City’s city council in 2023 on a campaign that pushed for transparency in local government
  • Currently serves on the Bay City Development Corporation and represents Bay City on the Houston‑Galveston Area Council.

Political ideology: Ben Flores identifies as a Democrat. He criticizes slow, bureaucratic systems that fail people in crisis. He warns about the impacts of climate change as urgent, particularly for Texas’ 367-mile coastline, and supports making environments more resilient against extreme weather and the effects of climate change. Flores strongly opposes school vouchers, arguing they undermine the constitutional mission of public lands to fund public education and exacerbate inequality. He originally declared his candidacy for governor, but switched to the GLO race because he is against how the current Land Commissioner has used GLO resources to obtain and transfer land to support border and immigration enforcement.

Policy stances:

  • Has said he would encourage data center developers to lease state-owned land
  • Proposed land swaps to incentivize building more affordable housing in his plan for the GLO office
  • Prioritize protecting and maximizing revenue from the Permanent School Fund, a state endowment used to fund public schools, by ensuring GLO-owned public lands benefit public schools; has opposed school vouchers
  • Streamline disaster response by accelerating debris removal, contract approvals for disaster relief services and deliver recovery funding to affected communities; has said he would create “a roster of pre-vetted Texas contractors ready to mobilize”
  • Ensure the GLO supports Texas veterans, including through partnerships to end veteran homelessness, efforts to expand childcare access and by advocating for a VA hospital in Rio Grande Valley and a new assisted living home in the Coastal Bend region
  • Commitment to freedom of speech and academic freedom; He opposed ousting of Alamo Trust President and CEO Kate Rogers who faced conservative backlash for recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day
  • Opposed Texas Republican’s effort to redraw maps to create five additional Republican-dominant congressional seats, saying, “the majority no longer respects the power of democracy. Their majority seeks the power of tyranny.” (The Land Commissioner is part of the Legislative Redistricting Board, which can draw state house and senate seats if the Texas Legislature fails to do so.)

In the news:

Endorsements:

  • Democratic state reps. Gene Wu of Houston, Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass, Josey Garcia of San Antonio and Armando Walle of Houston
  • Texas AFL-CIO
  • Sierra Club Political Committee of Texas
  • Many members of the State Democratic Executive Committee, the governing board of the Texas Democratic Party
  • Many statewide or regional Democratic groups, including Bay Area Movement Democrats, Austin Environmental Democrats, Harris County Tejano Democrats

How to contact:

howdy@letsgowithben.com

Campaign site

Neill Snider

Libertarian

💰 Campaign finance:

  • $Cash on hand as of June 30: $0
  • Raised between Jan. 1-June 30: $694

💰 Major donors this cycle:

  • Libertarian Booster PAC – $694 in in-kind donations

Experience:

  • Mechanical contractor and small cattle operations owner from Waco
  • Four decades of experience in trade industries, managing projects, meeting payroll and navigating government regulations

Political ideology: Snider is a libertarian. The Libertarian Party of Texas’ platform says it seeks “the maximum protection for the rights of all people against any violation” and that “government must be kept to the minimum necessary to protect the rights of individuals.” The party also says the government should not interfere in personal matters such as free speech, religion, marriage and family and property rights. It also supports the right to bear arms.

Policy stances:

  • Reduce taxes for Texans by maximizing profits from state land managed by the General Land Office or selling that property
  • Supports responsible energy production and fair leasing practices on state land
  • Increase transparency with the General Land Office

How to contact:

mechneill@yahoo.com

Disclosure: Texas Monthly has been a major financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. Domingo Garcia, Las Vegas Sands Corporation and Texas Public Charter Schools Association have been financial supporters within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.

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Alejandra Martinez is a Fort Worth-based environmental reporter. She’s covered the impacts of petrochemical facilities on Black and brown communities, including investigating a chemical fire at an industrial...

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