He Built a Honey Empire. Now He Wants to Rebrand Texas Ag — Interview with Nate Sheets

e built the #1 honey brand in America — then knocked off a three-term, Trump-endorsed incumbent without ever holding office. Nate Sheets, the Republican nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, joins Garrett to break down the fight over data centers eating up rural Texas land, and why Texas farmers are going broke.

Garrett and Nate go deep on the data center wars — dueling newspaper op-eds, who should pay for water and power infrastructure, and whether counties should get zoning power over these projects. Plus: Nate's path from the Navy to 12 years in Christian ministry to running Nature Nate's Honey, and a preview of what's coming later in the show — the Paxton-Talarico Senate race, the fallout from the Houston ICE shooting, Camp Mystic's bankruptcy filing, and the looming deadline for Texas school choice families.

*Topics discussed:*

• How Nate Sheets built Nature Nate's into the top-selling honey brand in America
  
  
• His path from the Navy to 12 years in Christian ministry to the CEO's chair
  
  
• Beating three-term, Trump-endorsed incumbent Sid Miller without ever holding office
  
  
• The conversation with Rick Santorum that convinced him to run for Ag Commissioner
  
  
• Dueling Houston Chronicle op-eds on data centers — Garrett's take vs. his opponent's
  
  
• Why Texas farms are going under, and how that's fueling the rural land rush for data centers
  
  
• The GoTexan program and other tools Sheets says he'd use to help farmers and ranchers
  
  
• Google's $40 billion bet on Stamford, Texas, and what it means for rural communities
  
  
• Preview: the Paxton-Talarico Senate race, the Houston ICE shooting, Camp Mystic's bankruptcy, and the school choice (TEFA) deadline
  
  

*Guest:* Nate Sheets, Republican nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner; founder of Nature Nate's Honey, where he served as CEO until November 2024. (Social handle not stated in transcript — producer to fill in.)

*Sources:*

• The Texas Tribune — By Kate McGee and Jess Huff — March 4, 2026 — [Nate Sheets defeats Sid Miller in Texas ag commissioner race](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/...)
  
  
• Houston Chronicle — [Opinion: Clayton Tucker, the Democratic candidate for agriculture commissioner, calls on Texas to put a moratorium on building new data centers](  / 1436698931807574  )
  
  
• The Texas Tribune — November 14, 2025 — [Google data centers totaling $40 billion coming to Texas](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/...)
  
  
• The Texas Tribune — July 8, 2026 — [Houston mayor questions city's authority to probe ICE shooting amid calls for independent investigation](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/...)
  
  
• CBS Texas — [Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy nearly a year after deadly Texas floods](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/ca...)
  
  
• The Texas Tribune — By Kayla Guo — July 8, 2026 — [Talarico more than triples Paxton's Q2 haul in Texas Senate race](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/...)
  
  
• Community Impact — [More than 100K students have been awarded Texas Education Freedom Accounts. Here are the next steps.](https://communityimpact.com/austin/ce...)

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