Douglas Todd Staples (born August 24, 1963) [2] is the former two-term Texas Commissioner of Agriculture . He unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2014.
On September 18, 2014, Staples announced that he would resign by mid-November to become president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, following a controversy surrounding his views on a "Meatless Monday" campaign being adopted by some Texas schools. [3]
Staples was reared in Palestine, the seat of government of his native Anderson County in East Texas . He graduated from Palestine High School , where he was an active member of the Future Farmers of America . While in college, he served from 1981 to 1982 as state vice-president of the FFA. He attended Texas A&M University in College Station and graduated magna cum laude in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics . [4] He started a plant nursery and later became involved in cattle ranching