By: Clayton Tucker, candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner

This article was originally published in Clayton’s Substack on June 16, 2025, and republished on June 23, 2025, with permission from the author. 

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The other day, a friend called me to tell me, “You have to come to Palestine [Texas]. Some billionaires are trying to steal our groundwater.”

So I packed a bag and went. It was a town hall with 200 folks. Standing room only. You had farmers, business folk, elected local officials, and just about everyone else you can imagine. It was a diverse group in every which way, but all were united on this issue: billionaires cannot irresponsibly take all of their water.

The good folks of Anderson, Cherokee, Henderson, and Houston counties rely on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which runs from Texarkana to Laredo.

They can safely take about 16.1 billion gallons of water per year from the aquifer. They probably should take less, as the aquifer has dropped by 20 feet or so in the last few decades.

Thankfully, the locals only use 9.2 billion gallons per year. This includes farmers, city folks, businesses, and everyone in between in their four-county area.

Then there’s Red Town Ranch LLC, founded by Kyle Bass and Kerry Anderson. How much do they want to take? The answer is 15+ billion gallons a year, or 98.9% of their total annual water supply.

As you can imagine, this would destroy the local water supply within just a few years. If that happens, farms would go out of business, sinkholes would open up, housing prices could crash, as people are forced to move all at once, and the local economy would burn.

So, why are the billionaires trying to do this? Well, no one really knows, and they’re not really communicating with anyone. Heck, they didn’t even notify locals! My first thoughts, like many—maybe they’re trying to sell it to a major metro or maybe they want to just sell it back to the locals at marked-up prices.

What are the people doing & what can I do to help?

The good people of East Texas are fighting back on both sides of the aisle. Local Democrats and Republicans are (checks notes) largely working together to stop this. The Texas Farmers Union is even getting involved.

[Editor’s note: This blog was republished after the protest date, for an update on the matter and East Texas’ call to action, please click to listen to Clayton’s TikTok update.] We need locals of Anderson, Cherokee, Henderson, and Houston counties to step up. We only have a few days to act.

@claytontuckertx East Texans won their the battle for water, but the war ain’t over yet. The latest updates about how ppl are fighting back against the billionaires trying to take their water #water #easttexas #foryou #foryoupage #fy #fyp #billionaire ♬ original sound - Clayton Tucker

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