Benjamin Flores, the Democratic nominee for 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.

Flores’ Background and Priorities

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. He defeated veteran and labor organizer Jose Loya for the Democratic nomination in March. Flores’ priorities include getting money to public schools, supporting veterans, and creating pathways to increase 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. The General Land Office manages 13 million acres of state lands, including 3,400 miles of coastline and tidelands extending over 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

Flores is facing Republican incumbent Dawn Buckingham, who has run the agency since 2022. Buckingham has been at the center of controversy in recent years, including a yearslong federal investigation into the state’s distribution of disaster aid after Hurricane Harvey.

Original reporting: Texas Tribune (HLL/CB) — read the source article.