




After 7 hours on the road, I’m now back in Lampasas after spending a few days in Amarillo. With two events, two meetings, and one meat processing tour, it was a jam-packed few days. What did I learn? Amarillo is hungry and ready for change.
The Texas Progressive Caucus launched our Speakers Bureau in Amarillo this last weekend. Styled after the National Farmers Alliance's practice of sending speakers to local communities, I spent time in Amarillo to both learn from the locals and help them grow.
I met with two fantastic local candidates running to improve their town, Jason Herrick and Patrick Miller. Also met with a few possible 2026 candidates for Congress and the Texas Legislature. They have a steep hill to climb. Amarillo, like much of Texas, has an oligarch problem.
Alex Fairly is an Amarillo oligarch who is dumping untold sums of money into their local elections, from city council to county commission to state representative. He dumped $20 million into his political PAC just last year alone. Imagine the good he could do by donating his obviously-not-needed money to charities, such as local food banks, instead of trying to buy more power for himself.
Oligarchy Alex has a bone to pick with one of the local candidates I met for coffee. Jason Herrick is a rather impressive guy who is running for mayor. Herrick knows his stuff and is doing great work. He founded a nonprofit called The RANGE. One of their projects concerns agricultural water conservation. Herrick is running against one of Oligarchy Alex’s handpicked puppets.
Oligarchy Alex didn’t like this, so he called his other puppet — Ag Commissioner Sid Miller. Miller effectively canceled up to $6 million in funding for The RANGE and their various projects, including water conservation, fire prevention, and more. Miller did this very sneakily by removing the entire line item from the TDA budget. Oligarchy Alex reportedly gave ol’ Sid about $50,000. Can anyone say quid pro quo?
It’s going to surprise exactly no one that West Texas has a looming water crisis. May not be this year. May not be this decade. But it’s coming. One of the groups, if not THE group. making actual advancements in agricultural water conservation to help us buy time is now without a key source of funding. All because an oligarch called one of his puppets for a favor.
Some may say it’s time for a shake-up in the Texas Department of Agriculture. I know many of the folks I met in Amarillo are tired of the puppets parading as politicians we have in Austin (& DC). I know I am.
I’ll wrap up with this. During the Panhandle Dems meeting, I told folks that we are in the age of oligarchy. But this isn’t the first time we’ve been here. Each time, progressive populists found the backbone within themselves to rise and speak out against the oligarchs and their cruelty. Whether it was the Farmers Alliance that exploded out of Lampasas to become a nationwide movement in the late 1800s, the New Dealers of the FDR era, or the folks who have had enough of today’s oligarchic antics and are marching in the streets from Amarillo to Tyler to McAllen, we will win so long as we stick together. Or as Ben Franklin would put it, either we hang together, or we hang separately.
Comment below if you’re tired of the politician puppets and what you’re doing about it.
P.S. If you want me to talk about the meat processor tour, also leave a comment to let me know!
You cannot imagine the smile i have on my face reading this. The grassroots are starting to get more attention and focus. I hope it blossoms to be a pretty blue flower in the state of Texas
Tell about the meat processing. Having worked in these plants, I'm interested in conditions in the plant, including the existence of any meat inspectors. I thought USDA ceased inspections years ago.