By Bobby Cole, Candidate for Governor of Texas

I was sitting in a economics 101 class back at Tyler Junior College in Texas, trying to keep my eyes open after a weekend working cattle, when the professor….one of those fellas who had more plaques on his wall than most small-town courthouses have portraits….got asked a question by a city kid.

She was sharp, majoring in finance, and she wanted to know: why does agriculture still matter when hardly anybody farms anymore?

The professor didn’t laugh. He leaned back and told a story.

The U.S. Navy had just launched a brand-new nuclear submarine. The admiral stood there at the commissioning ceremony in his spotless whites, bragging to reporters about its space-age features. Unlimited nuclear power. A system that could turn seawater into drinking water. Machines developed at NASA that made oxygen so the crew could breathe at depths no sunlight reaches.

It sounded like a vessel that could run underwater forever.

Then a reporter raised his hand. “With all this technology, Admiral, how long can the submarine stay down there?”

The admiral didn’t blink.

“Until it runs out of FOOD.”

That was the punchline. You can have all the reactors and gadgets in the world, but once supper’s gone, the game is over.

The professor looked around the room and said, “It’s no coincidence that every superpower in the history of the world was also an agricultural superpower.”

That line stuck with me. I’m not a career politician. I’m a farmer, a rancher, a businessman, retired firefighter who’s spent his life working the land right here in Texas. I’ve been out there when the rains didn’t come, when markets collapsed, when diesel prices cut into every decision.

And I’ve seen firsthand how Texas is the backbone not just of American agriculture, but of American strength.

Texas is the nation’s #1 producer of cattle, cotton, hay, sheep, goats, and horses. We’re also a powerhouse in poultry, dairy, and sorghum. Our ag exports are worth nearly $25 billion a year. Agriculture, food, and related industries pump over $100 billion annually into the Texas economy, supporting 1 out of every 7 jobs in this state.

Those aren’t just numbers. That’s supper on your table, kids in school, small-town Main Streets staying alive.

But let’s not kid ourselves…rural Texas and rural America is more than farms. It’s the riggers on oil fields, the loggers in East Texas, the truckers running cattle haulers down two-lane highways at 3 a.m., the welders keeping rigs and equipment running in the Permian Basin.

You can’t power America without Texas energy. You can’t build houses without Texas lumber. You can’t feed this country—or half the world—without Texas grain, beef, and cotton.

Take rural Texas out of the equation, and America folds like a busted card table.

We got a taste of this truth during the pandemic. Shelves went bare. Packing plants shut down. Cars sat unfinished because chips were stuck overseas. Medicines grew scarce because we depend on factories in places most folks couldn’t find on a globe.

Now imagine if our food supply worked the same way. Imagine if family farms disappeared and international corporations controlled our dinner tables. Do you trust foreign companies with your children’s food safety? Or do you trust Texas farmers and ranchers who eat the same beef, corn, and beans they sell you?

That’s not paranoia. That’s common sense.

And the numbers prove the point. Nationally, agriculture and food industries contributed $1.5 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023—about 5.5% of GDP. Farms alone produced $222 billion. Together, those industries supported 22.1 million jobs, or 10.4% of all U.S. employment.

One American farm now feeds about 169 people a year, both here and abroad. In 2023, U.S. farmers exported nearly $175 billion in products—everything from soybeans to beef to cotton.

Here in Texas, agriculture alone brings in over $15 billion in cattle receipts, $6 billion from cotton, and billions more from poultry, dairy, and wheat. Add in energy and timber, and rural Texas doesn’t just matter—it drives the national economy.

And yet too often, rural Texas gets written off as “flyover country.” Schools shutter. Hospitals barely hang on. Broadband crawls slower than a mule in mud. Meanwhile, Austin and Washington act like rural communities are background scenery.

That’s nonsense. Rural Texas is the engine room.

My daddy told me once, “You can’t eat money, and you can’t fuel a factory on promises. Sooner or later, you need what comes out of the dirt.” He was right.

That admiral was right, too. A submarine can’t last without food. And America can’t last without rural Texas. We’re the pantry, the power plant, and the lumberyard of this nation.

That’s why I’m running for governor. Not for a title, not for a career, but because Texas needs leaders who understand this state’s strength comes from the ground up—from the land, from rural communities, from people who lace up boots every morning and keep this country running.

So the next time someone sneers about “flyover country,” remind them: you can fly over us all you want, but when you land, you’ll still need Texas farmers, ranchers, riggers, loggers, and truckers to keep this country alive.

Rural Texas & Rural America matters. Always has. Always will.

Want to support a man in work boots for governor of Texas, click here: Cole for Governor 

Bobby Cole. A firefighter. A farmer. A rancher. A Texan who will always put service before self,  people before politics.