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Editor’s note: To help readers learn more about primary candidates, The Texas Tribune is sharing background information on top candidates. In particularly crowded races, we focused on candidates who have political experience or prominence. For a full list of the candidates running in this race, view our primary ballot page. For more information on the primaries and the voting process, check out our guides and news coverage here.

About this seat:

The Texas General Land Office, referred to as the GLO, is the oldest state agency. Established in 1836, 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, who isn’t facing any other Republican challengers.

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. Following Hurricane Harvey, the agency has faced accusations that it shortchanged communities of color in Houston when it distributed disaster relief. 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.

Candidates at a glance:

Texas General Land Office
Campaign site

Dawn Buckingham

Republican, incumbent

💰 Campaign finance:

  • $2,814,830 cash on hand

💰 Major donors this cycle:

  • Javaid Anwar, owner and president of Midland Energy, Inc. — $100,000
  • Clinton Roy Sumner, General Manager at Sage Manufacturing — $100,000
  • Michael Porter, owner of Cross Creek Ranch in Doss, Texas — $100,000

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 strong 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:

  • 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
  • Assisted with border wall construction and launched the Jocelyn Initiative, committing all available GLO resources to assist in detaining and deporting “criminal illegal immigrants”
  • 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:

  • Wayne Christian and Jim Wright, Texas Railroad Commissioners
  • 11 state senators including Sen. Charles Schwertner, Sen. Angela Paxton and Sen. Tan Parker
  • House Speaker Dustin Burrows and 41 other state representatives
  • National Border Patrol Council (NBPC)
  • Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA)
  • Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA PAC)


How to contact or learn more:
Use the contact form on the campaign website

Campaign photo
Campaign site

Jose Loya

Democrat

💰 Campaign finance:

  • $9,732 cash on hand

💰 Major donors this cycle:

  • Texas Majority PAC, a project dedicated to electing a Democrat to statewide office in Texas — $12,647 and an in-kind donation of $2,800
  • VoteVets PAC, a federal political committee which primarily helps elect Iraq and Afghanistan war Veteran candidates — $2,000.00

Experience:

  • Served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2002-2008; deployed twice to Iraq and became a U.S. citizen while in Iraq on his first tour
  • Worked at Valero refinery in the Texas Panhandle for 13 years, where he started as an operator and later advanced to a role focusing on keeping product safely contained so that workers weren’t injured on the job
  • Currently, works full time as an union representative for the United Steelworkers representing workers across Texas and parts of Oklahoma and leads a veterans program covering Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana

Political ideology :

Loya describes himself as a working-class, pro-labor Democrat focused on putting “everyday Texans” ahead of corporate interests. He says the General Land Office should maximize public land revenues to fund public schools, expand awareness to veterans’ programs, and provide nonpartisan disaster relief, with far more transparency and accountability. “This office should work for the people of Texas, not as a political stepping stone,” he said.

Policy stances:

  • Opposes school vouchers recently passed by state lawmakers, calling it a “voucher scam” that drains resources from public schools, especially in rural communities with few or no private options. As General Land Commissioner, he says he will maximize returns on state land leases to better fund public education to support essentials like textbooks, technology, and lowering borrowing costs for public school districts
  • Wants to dramatically expand awareness and use of the Veterans Land Board programs
  • Believes disaster assistance must serve all Texans, regardless of party, race, or connections and be guided by need, not politics

In the news:

Endorsements:

  • U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California
  • VoteVets PAC, a veteran-focused political action committee

How to contact or learn more:
info@joseloya.com

Campaign photo
Campaign site

Benjamin Flores

Democrat

💰 Campaign finance:

  • $67,720 cash on hand

💰 Major donors this cycle:

  • Campaign Strategy Services — $2,500.00
  • Bill Naso, Strategic Messages — $13,750, in-kind donation

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 accepts climate change as real and 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:

  • Prioritize protecting and maximizing Permanent School Fund revenues by making sure leasing and energy development on GLO-owned public lands benefit public schools
  • Opposes school vouchers, stating that when he originally ran for state governor, repealing the voucher program would have been his first action
  • Streamline disaster response by accelerating debris removal, contract approvals for disaster relief services and deliver recovery funding to affected communities
  • Ensure state lands and GLO resources are used to support Texas veterans
  • 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:

How to contact or learn more:
howdy@letsgowithben.com
2901 7th Street #399, Bay City, TX 77414

Disclosure: Facebook, Texas General Land Office, Texas Oil & Gas Association, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, University of Texas at Austin, Valero and Veterans’ Land Board have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them 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...