Four incumbents return, one new director
In the fifteenth statewide election since the Texas Corn Producers Board became a statewide entity in 1990, five board members were elected or re-elected in the organization’s biennial elections held this fall.
In Voting Region Two, Braden Gruhlkey of Randall County and Hagen Hunt of Hale County were re-elected. Kyla Hamilton of Lubbock County will join the board this year to represent this region that covers the Southern and High Plains. Bruce Wetzel of Grayson County was re-elected to serve in Voting Region Three, which encompasses North and Central Texas. Ben Gwynn of Nueces County will continue to serve in Voting Region Five – covering the South Texas region.
The Texas Department of Agriculture ratified the results of the elections on Thursday, December 16.
The five board members will be sworn in on January 8, 2022, during TCPB’s next board meeting by Patrick Dudley, Texas Department of Agriculture. Each person elected will serve a 6-year term, or until the year 2028.
The Texas Corn Producers Board is a statewide board dedicated to furthering research, education, promotion and marketing opportunities for the Texas corn industry. A voluntary checkoff program provides our organization with the funds required to enhance and grow the Texas corn industry.
The state is divided into five separate “voting regions” to ensure TCPB board seats best reflect corn production across the state, so corn farmers’ interests are adequately represented. There are 15 board seats on TCPB; the voting regions are designed for each seat to represent 1/15th of the total corn production in Texas, as reported by the Texas Crop Reporting Service. A complete list of board members is available online HERE.
News releases and legal notices on the elections were sent to major newspapers in the regions where elections were held. The voting period was from Oct. 25 – Nov. 15, 2021.
The next election will be in two years for five seats serving 6-year terms to begin in 2024.
