Jay Kleberg
Democratic Candidate for Commissioner of the General Land Office
Kleberg/Photo by Campaign
Question: What is your age?
Answer: 44
Q: What is your educational background? Please list any degrees or certificates earned and any institutions attended.
A: - Master of Businesses Administration, Dual Concentration in General Management at Entrepreneurship from The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business
- Bachelor of Arts in English from Williams College
Q: What is your occupation?
A: Conservationist and Small Business Owner
Q: If you are a business owner, please list the business or businesses that you own. (If this question is not applicable, please note that below.)
A: Explore Ranches
Q: Please list any civic boards or commissions (non-profit, government, union, political, etc.) on which you have served as a board member or equivalent.
A: Currently:
- Director of Texas Lyceum, a non-partisan civic engagement group
- Advisory Board Member of the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business
- Board Member of Flatsworthy, a grassroots conservation organization on the Texas coast
- Board Member of the Caesar Kleberg Foundation for Wildlife Conservation
Formerly:
- Board Chair, Texas Water Trade, a non-profit water conservation organization
- Board Chair, El Paso Regional Mobility Advocacy Group, non profit transportation advocacy organization
- Board Member, El Paso Museum of History Foundation, philanthropic partner to Museum
- Founder, Chalk the Block, largest annual public arts festival in El Paso history
- Board, Community Scholars, a non-profit leadership development organization in El Paso
Q: Have you previously held or do you currently hold any elected office? If so, what office(s)?
A: No
Q: If your campaign has any online campaign resources where voters can learn more about you, such as social media accounts or a website, please list them below.
A: Website: jay4tx.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Jay4txland
Twitter: twitter.com/jay4txland
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jaykleberg
Q: Why did you decide to run for this office in 2022?
A: I’m running for Texas Land Commissioner because I believe that climate change is real and we don’t have time for inaction. Climate change is a threat to the state and the land that we know and love, and Texas––more than any other state––has the ability to lead the way in addressing this crisis. I believe that loving Texas and accepting the science behind climate change go hand-in-hand. More frequent hurricanes, droughts, and unprecedented freeze events like we saw in February of 2021 should not incite politicized fights, but instead remind us that it is our fellow Texans whose lives and livelihoods are at stake. It’s time to elect a Texas Land Commissioner who dares to say: “I believe in science.”
Q: If elected, what will be your top three priorities in office?
A: If elected, I aim to adequately fund our Texas schools through the General Land Office’s contribution to the Permanent School Fund, address the effects of climate change and diversify our state’s energy portfolio to strengthen our grid, and fortify our coast and other vulnerable areas to prepare for future natural disasters.
Q: What is an issue you believe has gone overlooked in your race and how will you address it if elected?
A: I believe one of the issues that is often overlooked in this race is the impact that the General Land Office has on public education funding. The GLO can contribute up to $600M annually to the Texas Permanent School Fund, which funds public K-12 education. In recent years, this office and its contribution to the Texas Permanent School Fund have been used as a political chess piece. The General Land Office has sent less money to public schools than it did a decade ago, depriving our public schools of $720M of funding they would have received in 2018 alone. I would push to not only allocate the full $600M annually to the Permanent School Fund, but work with the State Legislature to increase the limit on how much the GLO could contribute annually. In the fall of 2019, the GLO reported that it had generated more than $1B in revenue from state lands. The entirety of those funds should support our chronically underfunded K-12 public school system that ranks 35th in the nation.
Q: Why are you the best candidate for voters to support for this position?
A: I grew up in an agricultural community in South Texas, where I developed a deep respect for the land. Those values have been present throughout my life and have helped define my career in land conservation. I served as the Associate Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, where my team led the largest land acquisition for conservation purposes in Texas history. The 17,000-acre piece of land is now a publicly-accessible wildlife haven located 150 miles southwest of Houston. During my tenure, we raised $100 million for public lands, benefiting Texans from all walks of life.
Now, as the co-founder and managing director of Explore Ranches, I work to safeguard the beauty of Texas for future generations by helping landowners improve and protect natural resources on homesteads across the state. As a film producer, I’ve traveled across Texas to create an innovative environmental advocacy curriculum and recently traversed the entire 1,200 miles of the Texas-Mexico border — by horse, bike, and canoe — for the feature film The River and the Wall.
Equipped with land management experience, a deep understanding of our state’s environmental challenges, and an MBA from the University of Texas, I’m ready to get to work.