WeedVoter

Benjamin Flores Democrat

Commissioner of the General Land Office

About this race: The incumbent, Dawn Buckingham, served in the Texas Senate before taking this office; her Senate votes for the 2019 bill creating the state’s hemp programme and for two Compassionate-Use expansions are listed below. Benjamin Flores has published a position on the 2026 hemp restrictions on his campaign site. No record was found for Neill Snider.

Whose record this page shows. The paragraph above is about the race, and part of it describes a different person. Everything after this line on this page is Benjamin Flores’s own record and nothing else — including, where it says so, the finding that no record was located. Every record the paragraph above describes is set out candidate by candidate on the Commissioner of the General Land Office race page.

Benjamin FloresDemocrat
92/100 support for legal access — top band, 67 to 100 moderate — three to five records produced this number · 3 of 3 records scored
How this score is worked out

Seven kinds of act move this number, and they do not count equally. A recorded vote counts 3, and so does authoring a bill or signing an executive action; signing on to somebody else’s bill counts 2. A statement or a questionnaire answer counts 2 as well, and an organisational endorsement counts 1. A vote takes its direction from the bill, whose effect is set out in advance; the rest take it from our reading of what was said, and each one below shows that reading and the reason for it. Acts shown with no number were examined and deliberately left out of the arithmetic, with a reason given.

  • 2026-09-28 questionnaire — Answered "Strongly Support" on maintaining a legal, regulated hemp marketplace and "Yes" that regulation is preferable to prohibition, and wrote that the goal should be responsible regulation rather than prohibition, counted as +2 at weight 2
  • 2026-09-20 statement — Opposes the hemp-THC ban and calls for keeping the products legal under testing, labelling and age rules. That is the same direction as a Nay on Senate Bill 3, which this site scores at the full expansive value, counted as +2 at weight 2
  • 2026-09-20 statement — Support for research into the therapeutic potential of THC. Medical and research access, so it scores as a partial rather than an adult-use position, counted as +1 at weight 2

Average on the −2 to +2 scale: 1.667. Full method and the bill table.

  • Said2026-09-20

    Asked on his campaign question-and-answer page what he thought of Texas effectively banning hemp on 31 July, he answered: "I believe adults should be able to buy tested, clearly labeled products without fear of sudden criminalization, and kids should be kept away from anything that can impair them." He argued that a ban hands the market to the underground rather than removing demand, drawing a comparison with alcohol prohibition, and concluded: "I support clear rules, quality standards, and age limits that keep products legal and out of the black market instead of driving them into it."

    ⚠️The page carries no publication date, so 2026-09-20 is the date it was read, not a publication date.

    letsgowithben.com

  • Said2026-09-20

    On the same question-and-answer page, answering whether he would describe himself as progressive, he wrote: "I support responsible research into the therapeutic potential of THC and psilocybin."

    ⚠️The page carries no publication date, so 2026-09-20 is the date it was read.

    letsgowithben.com

  • Questionnaire2026-09-28

    Said Texas "should have a legal, well-regulated hemp industry" and that the goal should be "responsible regulation, not prohibition", in the Texas Hemp Business Council’s 2026 candidate questionnaire. The council is a hemp industry trade association; it put twenty questions to 223 candidates for the Texas Legislature and statewide office and publishes the answers it receives in full, without editing. These are the candidate’s own words, submitted by the candidate.

    Asked about the future of hemp in Texas, the answer was, in full: "Texas should have a legal, well-regulated hemp industry that protects consumers, supports farmers and small businesses, and respects the choices of responsible adults. I support a statewide framework built around age restrictions, independent product testing, accurate dosage and labeling, child-resistant packaging, reasonable licensing requirements, and strong enforcement against bad actors selling contaminated or unlawful products.

    Fees and taxes should be proportionate and should not be used to price legitimate businesses out of the market. Texas farmers should also be encouraged to grow hemp as a lawful agricultural commodity that can diversify farm income and contribute to healthier crop rotations. Future policy should be driven by credible science, measurable public-health outcomes, and input from consumers, farmers, businesses, and medical experts.

    The goal should be responsible regulation, not prohibition, while giving compliant Texas businesses clear and predictable rules." Asked who should be permitted to sell THC, to whom, at what dose, in what form and subject to what safeguards: "THC products should be sold only by licensed or properly registered businesses that comply with state testing, labeling, packaging, recordkeeping, and age-verification requirements.

    For hemp-derived intoxicating products, sales should generally be limited to adults **21 and older**, while medical cannabis should remain available to qualifying patients through the appropriate medical program. Texas should establish reasonable per-serving and per-package dosage limits based on public-health evidence, product type, and consumer safety rather than using potency rules as a backdoor prohibition. Lower-dose products should remain available so adults can make informed choices and accurately control consumption.

    Lawful forms such as edibles, beverages, tinctures, and other appropriately regulated products should be permitted so long as they meet applicable safety standards. Products should undergo independent testing for potency and contaminants, clearly disclose THC content and ingredients, use child-resistant packaging where appropriate, and avoid packaging or marketing designed to appeal to children. The goal should be straightforward: keep THC products out of the hands of minors, keep unsafe products off the market, give adult consumers accurate information, and allow responsible Texas businesses to operate within clear and enforceable rules."

    Asked why regulation is or is not preferable to prohibition: "**Yes.** When a hemp-derived product can be produced and sold safely under a strong regulatory framework, regulation is preferable to an outright ban. Clear rules on testing, labeling, age restrictions, manufacturing standards, and enforcement can protect consumers while preserving a lawful market for Texas businesses and consumers. Blanket prohibition can eliminate legitimate businesses without necessarily eliminating demand.

    A responsible regulatory approach gives the state better tools to enforce safety standards, hold bad actors accountable, and keep unsafe or mislabeled products off the market." On the questionnaire’s fixed-choice questions: on maintaining a legal, regulated hemp marketplace, "Strongly Support"; on whether regulation is preferable to prohibition where a product can be made and sold safely, "Yes"; on hemp agriculture, "Strongly Support"; on retail regulation, "No additional licensing beyond existing law"; on tax policy, "Yes"; on consumer choice, "Yes".

    The council lists his office as "Texas Senate" and his district as "Texas Land Commissioner"; the race he is on the 2026 general-election ballot for is Commissioner of the General Land Office, which is what he typed in the district box, so this record is filed under that race. Some of his answers were typed with Markdown asterisks around the opening word; they are quoted here exactly as submitted. The date is the date the council recorded the submission, in Central time.

    texashempbusinesscouncil.com, texashempbusinesscouncil.com, texashempbusinesscouncil.com, texashempbusinesscouncil.com

See the whole Commissioner of the General Land Office race, including every opponent →

Who is paying for this campaign

Campaign finance — Texas Ethics Commission

Texas Ethics Commission filer 89819, filed as “Flores, Benjamin”, treasurer appointment for Land Commissioner, dated 2025-06-26.

Why there are no figures and no industry breakdown here. Texas does not require a candidate to report a contributor’s employer or occupation — the Commission’s own 2026 guide asks for the amount, the contributor’s name and address, and the date, and that is all. So there is nothing in these filings to group into industries, and we have built no such grouping rather than imply one. Separately, the Commission’s bulk filing archive tells automated readers to stay out of it, and we honour that, so we have read no individual Texas contribution record. Treat the itemised question as unchecked by us, not as checked and found empty.

Read this filer’s own reports at the Texas Ethics Commission (ethics.state.tx.us) → — choose Transaction Type “Contributions”, then Search By “Filer ID” and enter 89819. The Commission’s search posts its results, so there is no direct link to one filer’s page; the number above is what makes it one step instead of a hunt.

Any grouping of contributors into an industry is weedvoter’s own classification, applied to employer and committee names exactly as filed. The Commission publishes employers and committees; it never publishes industries. OpenSecrets discontinued its public interface in April 2025, so nothing here is an OpenSecrets classification.

Money received is not a position. Everything on this card is money that changed hands. It is not evidence that any contribution influenced any decision, nothing on it is placed beside a roll call, and we make no claim about anyone’s motive. For what Benjamin Flores has actually done about cannabis, read the record above on this page — the roll calls, the bills that carry their name, and the date of each one, every entry linked to the document it came from. That is the part of this page built to be judged, and it is the part the score is calculated from. No contribution on this card moves that score by a cent.