Benjamin Flores
Benjamin Flores, the Democratic nominee to run Texas’ General Land Office, has been diagnosed with leukemia, his campaign announced Friday. He will remain in the race while he receives treatment at MD Anderson in Houston.
“My mother taught me to never bow down. I did not bow down to challenges of winning my March primary, and I will not bow down to leukemia,” Flores said in a statement. “I will win back my health as well as my election to Land Commissioner in November.”
Flores is a cybersecurity expert and small-scale pig farmer who served on the Bay City city council and local economic development boards before running for the General Land Office this cycle. He defeated veteran and labor organizer Jose Loya for the Democratic nomination in March.
Flores is facing Republican incumbent Dawn Buckingham, who has run the agency since 2022.
Flores originally declared his intent to run for governor, but switched to land commissioner before the primary. He has said his priorities are getting money to public schools, supporting veterans, including by lobbying to get a veteran’s hospital in the Rio Grande Valley, and creating pathways to increase the solar and wind energy producers on state land.
While his cancer diagnosis will keep him off the campaign trail for the next few months, he said in a statement that he remains dedicated to the race.
“I am still an active candidate working regularly with my staff and getting closer to victory every day,” Flores said. “And with that victory, I will become the first Latino Land Commissioner in Texas history.”
See here for some background. The Land Commissioner primary was very low profile, and as there were only two candidates it didn’t go to a runoff, so I hadn’t heard anything lately about Benjamin Flores. It sucks that this is the first news item I have. He’ll be in great hands at MD Anderson, and I wish him and his family all the best as he gets treatment.