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Jay Kleberg of Texas' King Ranch family is running for land commissioner as a Democrat

AUSTIN — Jay Kleberg, a conservationist and filmmaker who is part of the family that has owned the famous King Ranch in South Texas for generations, said Thursday he's running for state land commissioner as a Democrat to battle climate change and preserve Texas' 13 million acres of public land.

"This is an environmental post and I've been doing environmental advocacy and conservation work for the last decade or so, and the urgency of climate change is real," Kleberg, a sixth-generation Texan who grew up in Kingsville and now lives in Austin, said in an interview.

Jay Kleberg
Jay Kleberg

The land commissioner's office will be up for grabs in 2022 because two-term Republican George P. Bush is stepping aside to seek the GOP nomination for attorney general. State Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, who represents a district that sprawls from western Travis County to much of the Hill Country, also is running for the seat and has the support of former President Donald Trump.

More: State Sen. Dawn Buckingham to run for Texas land commissioner

Democratic activist Jinny Suh, who describes herself as a "second-generation daughter of Korean immigrants," announced her candidacy in September.

Kleberg, whose family is the namesake of Kleberg County, said he was raised on the King Ranch and now is a co-founder of a company called Explore Ranches, that offers high-end ranches for rent. He is also the producer of the documentary called "The River and the Wall," in which he and others explored the 1,200 miles of the Rio Grande by horseback, bicycles and canoes. It premiered at the 2019 South by Southwest Film Festival.

Those experiences, Kleberg said, helped him "learn the value of hard work and land stewardship."

He also lived for a time in El Paso and ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a seat in the Texas House. Kleberg said he ran in the GOP primary, which he lost, because he thought the Democratic stronghold of El Paso needed someone from Texas' majority party to carry the region's voice to the Capitol.

In his introductory campaign video, the 44-year-old Kleberg talked about several recent severe weather episodes, including the February winter freeze, that he said were made worse by the earth's changing climate.

"I'm about to say something so simple. Why it's considered daring in Texas politics I have no idea. I believe in climate change," said Kleberg, who is married and has three daughters. "And I believe Texans can handle the truth."

Suh, a non-practicing lawyer, is a founder of Immunize Texas, an advocacy organization that supports pro-vaccine legislation.

Jinny Suh
Jinny Suh

The General Land Office is Texas' oldest state agency and manages public lands and is in charge of enforcing the Coastal Beach Act, which provides for "free and unrestricted right to access Texas beaches" along the Gulf of Mexico. Earnings from energy leases, both fossil fuels and renewable, on public land raises money for the state Permanent School Fund.

The land commissioner also chairs the state's Veterans Land Board, which provides low-interest property loans for qualifying military veterans and oversees state veterans' homes and veterans' cemeteries.

Filing for the March 1 primaries opened Saturday and ends Dec. 13. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination for land commissioner likely will enter the fall campaign as the underdog. The party has been shut out in statewide elections since 1998.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Democrat Jay Kleberg of King Ranch family runs for land commissioner