Agriculture is the second largest industry in Texas, which is home to more than 230,000 farms. Here’s a look at who’s running in the 2026 Democratic and Republican primaries to oversee the agriculture department and where they stand on the issues.

Abandoned wells in the Permian Basin are increasingly erupting with briney, polluted water. The Texas Railroad Commission says it needs emergency money to respond.

After losing in a Republican runoff last year, Stogner said she plans to challenge incumbent Chair Christi Craddick as a member of the Forward Party.

Offshore wind advocates blame Texas’ antagonistic political climate for the lack of offers. A lease off the coast of Louisiana received two bids.

McBride Operating LLC and its owner, Joseph McBride, contributed to the political campaigns of the three commissioners on the Texas Railroad Commission now considering his request.

Judge Wayne Christian served his last docket Wednesday after being on the bench since the court’s conception. He has helped 773 veterans through pre-trial diversion services.

Christian chairs the three-member board that oversees Texas’ oil and gas industry.

Christian, who’s running for reelection to the Texas Railroad Commission, said he did not realize Warford was Jewish and would stop using the slogan, which he’s used for previous campaigns.

One of three seats on the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees the oil and gas industry, is up for grabs this election. Democrat Luke Warford is betting his campaign on the issues of electric grid reliability, regulatory enforcement and reducing emissions.

Stogner, who lost in a Republican primary runoff to incumbent Wayne Christian, said she’s endorsing Luke Warford.

Critics are skeptical about whether the new rules by the Railroad Commission will prevent another catastrophe like the power grid disaster in February 2021.

Christian beat Sarah Stogner in the Republican primary runoff for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission after she accused him of corruption during the campaign.

Tuesday’s elections will solidify the major parties’ statewide tickets and have national political implications.

Ashley Watt, who owns a 75,000-acre ranch in the Permian Basin, is helping bankroll a substantial TV ad buy in the final two weeks before Stogner faces the Railroad Commission’s chair, Wayne Christian, in the runoff.

Incumbent Wayne Christian and oil and gas lawyer Sarah Stogner pitched voters in Paris, Texas, ahead of the May 24 election. Early voting runs May 16-20.

After last winter’s near-statewide electric blackouts, Texas lawmakers went after regulators they deemed responsible but tiptoed around the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas. Now voters have a chance, if they want it, to send the state a message.

The chair of the Texas Railroad Commission fell short of winning at least 50% of the vote and will face oil and gas attorney Sarah Stogner in May.

The oldest state regulatory agency, in charge of how oil and gas are produced and transported, doesn’t typically attract much attention at election time. This year is different.

In the state’s power grid, electricity and natural gas are co-dependent. Here’s how the winter storm last year broke the system.

Early voting starts on Monday, and the primaries are on March 1. But some recent polling foreshadows May runoffs for some offices high on the Texas ballot.

Vistra Corp. asked the Railroad Commission of Texas to prevent Energy Transfer LP from cutting off fuel to five of its power plants on Monday. Vistra said the power supply to at least 400,000 homes and businesses could be impacted.

But Texas oil and gas regulators addressed only part of the problem that led millions of Texans to lose power for days after February’s winter storm, and gas producers likely won’t be required to weatherize until 2023.

Luke Warford, a 32-year-old former Texas Democratic Party staffer, is challenging Republican incumbent Wayne Christian for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission.

When the power went out for Marsha Hendler on Feb. 15, she rushed to her downtown San Antonio office to ride out the winter storm. Thankful to find the electricity and heat still on, she typed out an email to the elected officials who regulate her small, independent oil and gas company.

SAN ANTONIO – Top officials of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the agency that regulates the state’s electric grid, said Friday that no energy source was safe from the massive winter storm this week. AdThat choice kept the state’s electric grid from a possible catastrophic blackout, ERCOT officials previously said. (KSAT)The deadly storm has reignited arguments about the state’s energy plan, including whether it over invested in renewable energy sources. Still, wind energy accounts for less than a quarter of the state’s electricity, a figure that is lower in winter months, ERCOT officials said. AdThat supply, according to ERCOT officials, would have been just as vulnerable to the elements.

A natural gas flare burns in Pecos County in West Texas. State regulations allow producers to flare gas for up to 10 days after they're done drilling an oil or gas well. But the commission ultimately approved Exco’s flaring extension request 2-to-1 on Aug. 6 with Commission Chairman Wayne Christian casting the lone dissenting vote. He added that it didn't make sense economically for the commission to force Exco to go through the motions to sell natural gas when it brings such a low price. “Natural gas flaring has long been recognized as wasteful and environmentally harmful,” the company said in its petition.

SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio man who repeatedly posed as a law enforcement officer to solicit clients for his lawn care and fencing company has been sentenced to four years in jail. Judge Wayne Christian referred to 45-year-old Carlos Elizondo as a "serial thief" while sentencing him late last month. An SAPD report filed in early November indicates that Elizondo and his wife, Kara, have a "fixation" with the detective assigned to Elizondo's theft cases. Elizondo told officers that he now knows the name of the detective's son from searching Facebook and that he attends the same church as them. San Antonio residents who believe they have been victimized by Elizondo may call SAPD North Property Crimes at 210-207-7658.