Commissioner Todd Staples was born and raised in Anderson County and has had lifelong involvement with agriculture. He worked as a youth on his family farm, a commercial cow-calf operation.

He was active in the Future Farmers of America in high school, participating at all levels, and was elected to serve as a state vice president of the Texas FFA in 1981-82. He graduated from Texas A&M University with honors in 1984 with a degree in agricultural economics.

Upon graduation, Commissioner Staples returned home to Palestine and helped his family start a retail plant nursery and landscaping business, Staples Greenhouse. On a place of his own, he began a cow-calf operation with his father which they still operate today.

Commissioner Staples owns a real estate brokerage and appraisal business that includes farms and ranches, and he is also a partner in a registered Brangus venture with Bennett Brangus of Tennessee Colony.

The Commissioner’s legislative service has been devoted to the protection of private property rights, natural resources and agricultural initiatives. He served on the Senate Natural Resources Committee, where he had a direct impact on agriculture and natural resources policy affecting Texans statewide. As chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, Commissioner Staples worked tirelessly with the Texas Farm Bureau, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, and other agriculture organizations to ensure that the private property rights of farmers, ranchers and all Texans are protected from governmental intrusion.