Todd Staples

Douglas Todd Staples (born August 24, 1963) is the departing Texas Commissioner of Agriculture. He leaves office on or before January 2015 after two terms. He did not seek reelection in 2014 but instead unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.

Prior to his election in 2006 as agriculture commissioner, Staples had served as a Republican in both houses of the Texas State Legislature and in a nonpartisan position on the city council in Palestine in Anderson County, Texas.

Staples was unopposed for renomination in the GOP primary held on March 2, 2010. In the November 2 general election, he handily defeated the populist Democrat Hank Gilbert (born 1959) of Whitehouse and the Libertarian Party choice, Rick Donaldson of Rockwall County. Gilbert had also lost to Staples in 2006.

On September 18, 2014, Staples announced that he would resign by mid-November to become president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, following a controversy surrounding his views on a "Meatless Monday" campaign being adopted by some Texas schools.