COLDSPRING — Candidates, fellowship and even birthday wishes for the country were on the menu for the Reagan/Trump Dinner 2026, put on by the San Jacinto County Republican Party.
County GOP members rubbed elbows with candidates for local, state and federal offices, and heard from Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller, the keynote speaker for the event.
Miller told the group that the mission of the Ag Department — overseeing agriculture in the state that is responsible for bringing in $300 billion — was larger than crops and livestock.
Some of the other responsibilities include being the state’s consumer protection agency, done through scale inspections in businesses from commercial trucking to pawn shops to airports, Lotto ball certification, and even gas pump inspections.
Miller said his department alone has an $8 billion budget, which is more than the budgets of 37 states in the union.
Some the concerns facing the state, which his department is looking to work on, are increasing the amount of fresh food being used for school lunches, combatting a $50 billion national agriculture trade deficit, and working with proposed data centers, which currently building on the most fertile land in the state and using massive amounts of water and power.
Also, he said that new problems cropping up include the New World screwworm, which has invaded the state despite efforts to eradicate the pest.
Wesley Hunt, a Republican representative in the U.S. House and a candidate for U.S. Senate against Sen. John Cornyn, reminded the crowd that they live in the greatest country in the world, and it was about time that we have unapologetic leaders that will stand up and say that.
He said his race against Cornyn began because he feels that the U.S. Senate is not a retirement community, in which Cornyn has served for 24 years. He believes that now is the time for new blood to use their talents to fix the country.
He also believes in term limits, saying that because of the length of time that politicians serve, they essentially don’t have to live with the laws they create.
