With the March Republican primary election approaching, three Republicans are vying for the nomination in the comptroller race.
The comptroller’s office is the fiscal arm of Texas’ state government—it manages the State Treasury, collects and distributes taxes, oversees and reports on state spending, and disburses over $50 billion through its subsidiary, the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company.
It also manages key initiatives, including Texas college savings plans, state grants, and other programs that utilize state funds—including the new Education Savings Accounts Program.
The three candidates seeking to oversee that office are acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, and former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines.
Kelly Hancock
Hancock previously served in the Texas House from 2006 to 2013 and in the Texas Senate from 2013 to 2025. Nearly a month ago, he resigned from the Senate to accept the position of chief clerk of the comptroller’s office, where he now serves as acting comptroller following Glenn Hegar’s resignation.
Hegar left to take the position of chancellor for the Texas A&M University System. Gov. Greg Abbott chose Hancock to serve as acting comptroller and endorsed his run for the seat.
Although he is not formally the comptroller, Hancock is charged with leading the office until the next election in 2026.
As a legislator, Hancock sought to cap constitutional spending.
Starting in 2011, Hancock tried to pass an amendment to the budget that would have limited overspending by capping it at the combined rate of population growth and inflation.
He attempted to pass similar constitutional spending limits in both 2015 and 2017 before eventually succeeding in 2021 with Senate Bill 1336.
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility gave Hancock’s overall career a “B” rating. Notably, he is one of two House Republicans who sought to remove Attorney General Ken Paxton from office after his impeachment trial in 2023.
The Young Conservatives of Texas gave Hancock an overall score of 81. However, his score has declined with each legislative session over the last eight years, eventually dropping to 77 in the 88th Legislative Session.
Hancock’s campaign has received more than $1.5 million in donations and has nearly $6 million cash on hand. His current total expenditures are about $335,000.
Among Hancock’s most significant individual donors are John and Barbara Nau of Silver Eagle Distributors, the largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products, who donated a total of $250,000.
Also contributing is former State Sen. John Carona, who represented Senate District 16 from 1998 to 2015 until being unseated by Don Huffines, now Hancock’s opponent. Carona donated a total of $100,000 to Hancock’s campaign.
Christi Craddick
Christi Craddick, a Texas railroad commissioner since 2012, has highlighted her decade of experience leading a state agency.
During her time as a railroad commissioner, Craddick initiated multiple regulatory cuts to remove unnecessary costs—the Texas Oilfield Relief Initiative is one of the largest. This initiative modernized and removed cumbersome regulatory and administrative burdens for oil and gas producers.
It also improved the commission’s IT services and reduced specific testing requirements, eliminating wasteful spending. IT improvements made in late 2022 included an online portal for Texans to watch the commission’s hearings.
At the top of Craddick’s priorities list for the comptroller role is a full audit of every dollar spent to ensure that every program is reviewed and tracked to catch potential waste.
She also plans to create a Local Government Efficiency Task Force to help communities optimize their budgets.
Craddick’s campaign has amassed approximately $2.9 million in total donations and has $3.2 million cash on hand. Her total expenditures thus far amount to around $1.2 million.
Top donors include George Brint Ryan of Ryan, LLC, one of the largest indirect tax and property tax services firms in North America. He personally donated $250,000, and his Ryan Texas PAC donated an additional $100,000.
“She’s smart and steady, ever attentive to every line on every budget. She runs a tight ship. She abhors frivolous spending that takes state government away from its mission of serving the taxpayers of Texas,” Ryan said in his endorsement.
In addition, both John Sellers of Double Eagle Energy Holdings and Javaid Anwar, president of Midland Energy, Petroplex Energy, and Western T. Corporation, have endorsed her and donated $100,000 each. Ray L. Hunt and Woody Hunt of the Hunt oil tycoon family have also endorsed her.
These endorsements indicate support from the oil industry she regulates and oversees, despite recent, controversial environmental rules posted at the end of last year that advocates say limit the industry’s productivity.
Don Huffines
Don Huffines is a real estate developer who created Huffines Communities in North Texas with his brother. From 2015 to 2019, he served as a state senator for District 16, nestled around the Dallas area.
Huffines lost his Senate seat in 2018 to a Democrat candidate. After running for governor in 2022, he created the Huffines Liberty Foundation.
The foundation is a nonpartisan research institute intended “to advance the cause of liberty, prosperity, and virtue in Texas by educating and equipping citizens to hold their elected officials accountable through researched solutions and public policy analysis.”
Huffines has a long history of rooting out corruption. During his tenure as a senator, Huffines led the effort to end Dallas County Schools (DCS) after it was involved in a major corruption scandal.
Under his DOGE Texas Agenda, Huffines lists several key issues he plans to tackle as comptroller to root out inefficiency and corruption and audit the state more effectively.
For his comptroller bid, Huffines has received more donations than the other GOP candidates—approximately $4.6 million, $3 million of which came from his brother, Phillip Huffines. He also has $14.4 million cash on hand, and his expenditures total around $745,000.
Some of his top donations include $50,000 from Monty Bennett, CEO of Ashford Inc.; $50,000 from Andrew Beal, founder of Beal Bank USA; and $90,000 from Darwin Deason, Xerox’s largest individual shareholder.
Huffines achieved an “A” rating on the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility’s Fiscal Index during his Senate term from 2015 to 2019. The Young Conservatives of Texas gave him a career rating of 92.
He has received endorsements from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Vivek Ramaswamy, Rick Green of Patriot Academy, and Terry Shilling of the American Principles Project, among other state and national conservative leaders.
Election
All three candidates have pledged to implement greater oversight of taxpayer money.
The candidate who wins the Republican primary in March will face off against the Democrat nominee when the General Election takes place on November 3, 2026.
